COVID-19: Why, God?

by Heidi White - 31 March 2020

This is the question many of us are asking in these days; how could a loving God allow a terrible disease like coronavirus to sweep the world, killing so many of our most vulnerable people?

It doesn’t seem to make sense.

We all want answers to this pandemic; it’s uncomfortable thinking we normally avoid but can’t at the moment.

It’s common to look for someone to blame when things go wrong; we feel angry, afraid and helpless. We want to rant at someone, but is God the right person?

As far as I can see it, we really can’t put this one on God. This is a man-made problem, caused by our desire to live the way we want to and I’m not blaming the Chinese- if we’re honest, we’ve caused a lot of global issues that affect others, but we just don’t always see the links. Our desire to live the way we want does affect others as we don’t really live in a bubble, do we?

Why doesn’t God stop the virus killing people?

I am sure God would like to and he could, but if he stepped in here, when else should he step in and if that extended to everything, and eventually, that would mean we were not free to make our own choices at all. Do we really want that?

I don’t think any of us wants to live in a world where God dictates everything we do; we’d be nothing more than robots and he’s just not that kind of God.

God is someone who, despite being all powerful (and able to zap viruses if needed), chooses to let us be free to make our own decisions, no matter what the consequences are.

I don’t think any of us wants to live in a world where God dictates everything we do

Why would he do this when the consequences are coronavirus?

God actually wants us to make the right choices. Sometimes we mess up and we have to live with that, but he wants to know us as friends- he’s desperate to have a friendship with you but he’ll never force you. The bible tells us ‘you are my friends’ in John 15:15, rather than servants that just do as they’re told. So he lets us make our decisions and we all have to live with the consequences. Sobering isn’t it? But the good news is that God can help us make good choices that affect others in a positive way too and we are seeing evidence of that around us in the number of volunteers signing up, people calling vulnerable people us, delivering shopping.

So instead of blaming God for the virus, why not take responsibility as a human being that makes their own choices too and choose to get to know the God that made you that way?