‘Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, so that a flood of waters may cover you? Can you send forth lightnings, so that they may go and say to you, “Here we are”? Who has put wisdom in the inward parts,[c] or given understanding to the mind?[d] Who has the wisdom to number the clouds? Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens, when the dust runs into a mass and the clods cling together?...' (Job 38: 34-38)
I often feel sorry for meteorologists in New Zealand. These elongated, hilly islands exposed to ocean currents and winds from all sides make the forecasting of weather a mysterious art, akin to the reading of tea-leaves or other forms of soothsaying. When Neil Finn was singing the lyric 'four seasons in one day' he was based in Melbourne, but Auckland could equally lay claim. I often consult the Met Service app to plan me obligatory fresh air for the day, especially in lock down. It's a pretty hit and miss affair.
Job chapters 38-39 is a lengthy interrogation of Job by the Almighty regarding Job's abilities to reliably interpret the the signs and workings of the creation, including the weather. 'Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me. ‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.' God opens the conversation this way, and all Job can do is listen, with humility.
In a sense, the Covid pandemic links us with all the people's of the world. No human community have a particular ability to resist the virus, given it is a novel expression of a coronavirus, something new. It becomes apparent, that as the virus mutates into various iterations (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and now Eta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda and Mu) that official responses will also evolve to respond. This is too be expected, and the cry "last year you said......!" becomes redundant as Delta is exponentially more transmissible than Alpha, for example.
While we might need the patience of Job to get through a 50+ day lockdown in Auckland, Christians are wise enough to know that only God has the full picture of the dynamic workings of the creation, something which encompasses the tiniest virus to the largest Blue Whale, and all the wonders of volcanoes, tectonic plates to the tiniest grain of sand. Read Job, God makes a handy list for our edification.
For what it's worth I believe the existing elected government and health officials loaded with the unenviable task of guiding our nation through this pandemic are doing their best. I think they are acting in good faith, there is no sinister, leftist plot to render us all 'sheeple' or unthinking drones. Sure there have been a few missteps, but when you are dealing with a mutating, novel virus and actual human beings who do some pretty random and unexpected things at times, there are always going to be.
For my part I have been double vaccinated. While I am famously the last person to get sick (if at all) in my household, we have very real respiratory issues in our family, so I have no desire to be part of the problem, for myself or others. Also, as a hard-core trail runner, I like my lungs just the way they are thanks.
I acknowledge personally that I seldom get everything right, in life or in wisdom, but I know I can rely on God to be with me in any and every circumstance as I call on Him. Yet I am called to act and speak in good faith, as the Spirit leads. I reflect on and close with Job's response to the Almighty;
Then Job answered the Lord:
‘See, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but will proceed no further.’ (Job 40: 3-5)