COVID19 just leveled the loftiest among us, well, more like, God just reset us all to manufacturing settings.

As my wife and I awaited the presidential speech on the kitchen table the other day, the urban station we’d tuned into continued to serenade with hyper sensual music, to which she wondered out loud why anyone would want to listen to such trifle treats amidst a deadly pandemic?

We’ve had many sobering moments like those in this quarantine, many others too, including one where I, (under my breath) gladly expressed thanks to my late mother for teaching me how to do laundry with my hands, even when that sweet legacy (in the absence of a regular-house help) didn’t save me from the sweltering noonday heat and the blister that finally surfaced out of employing my bare hands to a chore I hadn’t engaged up until quarantine.

Then there is another scenario of me trying to join along with my daughter’s midday homeschool class, even when I could only just mumble the words of the song. Now trying to be a present dad ( even when I have been a loitering one  in my pre-quarantine days)

These days have humbled me, and a peek through my window shortly before 8pm tells me they have humbled many more out there.

We Christians like Job’s friends can choose to brainstorm all day long on Twitter on what   God is up to this season, no doubt, but we could also wisely allow ourselves to be slowed down by providence.

Especially in confidence that all things are still working for the good, for those who love the Lord, amidst empty sidewalks and missing hairdressers.

We in Christ have the grace to not only point many to the Sovereign God who’s orchestrated every germ before to his righteous purposes and glory, including Israelite plagues and Job’s sores, Paul’s satanic messenger and Habakkuk’s drying fig trees.  

(Listen to our extended COVID19 reflections here)

What if COVID19 is here to unearth such realities, starting with your dishwashing frustrations or absent maids or my blistered hands and lousy radio songs.

What if we are learning through this that we pay more attention spiritually when all that mattered is swept away, when we are restored to factory settings?

What if?