What does this mean to a Christian? It is that we need to realise that uncertainty is much more of a norm than the constancy and control that society seems to expect us to have. Up to 2019 we had got used to the expectation of a continuing present carrying on and on, month on month, year on year. Yes, there were blips, but for most of us things were constant.
Then Covid began to sweep across our path, and our plans had to be cancelled. Things got worse and for many their support structures, important ones like jobs and for many, health, buckled and collapsed. Our world was falling apart. It was beginning to piece itself together with businesses and shops opening up, and even travel and holidays becoming possible. Now there are the new clouds of Omicron darkening the horizon, and looming like a new storm.
Instead of shrinking back in a new state negativity and depression, it is time for the Christians stand upright and strong, to take stock, and shift over to reliance on God. The most direct scripture on this is perhaps Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” So too are the promises of God constant. Corinthians 1:20 says “For all the promises of God are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so, through Him, our ‘Amen’ is spoken to the glory of God.”
The problem is that we have become dependent on the idea of certainty. Life is uncertain. There is no real certainty expect God himself. The closer we are to him and the more we rely on him, the more we will derive our certainty from him. He guides our path in the darkness. He takes us through deep waters. He supplies our every need. Satan loves insecurity and fear. God is the opposite. He ls constant, stable, and reliable, and an anchor to our souls in the storms.
Think about St Paul. In 2 Corinthians, 11 and 12, he tells of his hardships. “I have been in prison frequently, flogged severely, exposed to death again and again, beaten with rods, pelted with stones, three times shipwrecked, but I delight in my weakness, for Christ’s sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong.
Paul went on and on, taking all sorts of unknown hardships. He was not afraid of anything! His boldness was based on the certainty of God, upon whom he could place total reliance. He was not afraid of tomorrow.
So, let us be inspired. Let us face New Covid with the full expectation that God’s blessings never cease. Let us praise God in the middle of the storm. Let us have a happy Christmas, not because it is written on the Christmas card, but because we have the constancy and certainty of Jesus Christ yesterday, today, and forever.