The Upside of the Coronavirus

Hans Holbein

This afternoon I did my first ever over-the-phone doctor’s appointment. It was a bit confused; it was obviously almost her first too. I got a clean bit of health, and she assured me I was not high risk for the coronavirus.

And she said “Bless you” before we signed off.

We may see here the great benefit of this plague; and it may explain why God sent it.

For as I have noted, there is no dodge by which, if God exists at all, we can pretend He does not will such things.

Last week, it would have been unacceptable in Canada for a professional to say “bless you” to a client, neither knowing the other’s religious beliefs.

I saw this morning the shop clerks busily restocking shelves at the supermarket, and I felt an upwelling of love for them, thinking of them as real heroes.

In other words, we have here clear evidence that this thing is bringing us closer to God.
It is the very same reason for which He sent plagues in the Old Testament.

It is sadly human nature that, so long as things are going well, we stop appreciating it, grow selfish and ungrateful, and stop thinking about God or Right or Truth or our fellow man or much else.

It seems to me it may well be that, as a result of this plague, we may start pulling back from the culture of self and death and moral relativism into which we have been tailspinning. Or at least more of us may.