For the most faithful among us, who may be uttering ancient, Job-like prayers…

O God, we know You are our God of healing.  We are struggling, God, with the news of thousands of people dying around the world.  Is this an ominous result of our not having enough faith to be healed?  If we had more faith, would You flatten the curve of this illness?

O God, we know You are our God of blessings.  We are trying, God, to recognize that Your blessings come in many different forms.  In our currently narrowed perspectives, though, our cups appear to be shrinking, instead of overflowing.  We know You are not the treasurer of a prosperity gospel, but grappling with the news of shuttered businesses, climbing unemployment, and shrinking retirement dreams frightens even those who have steadfastly given You the glory for every perfectly good gift.

O God, we know You are our God of worship.  You delight in the assembly of Your children, gathered to worship You.  Some of the most elaborate buildings on earth are the sacred spaces dedicated to You.  We place such value in our centers of worship that many of us even have “our own pew.”  Since we need to close our sacred spaces right now, couldn’t You simply kill the virus so we don’t have to forsake our meeting together? 

O God, we know You are our God of companionship.  We thrive together because You deemed it not good that we should be alone.  In these days of social distancing, we are experiencing the reason that You didn’t create us to be people of isolation.  Shouldn’t You destroy this disease so that we can emerge out of isolation and return to live in connection and community, as You made us? 

O God, we know You are our God of judgment; we know You are our God of mercy.  In these days of pain and uncertainty, we wonder if the entire planet has become the modern-day Sodom, where there are not even ten faithful souls to redeem your Noah-like wrath.  We know that Jesus Christ is the embodiment of Your mercy over judgment.  Help us in our unbelief. 

What might be God’s response to these honest prayers?  He is still the God of healing, blessings, worship, companionship, judgment, mercy, along with many other divine manifestations.  The suffering in these days in no way diminishes who He is.  Consider what He said to His servant Moses in another time when His children were suffering.  He simply and profoundly said, “I AM WHO I AM.”

Certainly, God was in our past, even though the most recent past days seem forever ago.  He will also be in our future, despite our inability to imagine quite yet a future without distancing.  For now, let us celebrate that God is in the present.

I AM is still I AM.

__________

For further study of the references above, see Job 23; Matthew 17:19-20; Psalm 23:5; James 1:17; Hebrews 10:25; Genesis 2:18; Genesis 18:22-33; Genesis 6:5-8; Matthew 5:45; Exodus 3.

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