“Jump, son! I’ll catch you. Trust me. Cause I’ve got you.”

The boy hesitated. Scared of the height. Fearful of hurt.

“Jump, son. One, two, three… now!”

The boy jumped. Reaching for the pledged trust.

The dad stepped back.

Eyes wide. Betrayed. The boy landed hard. Tumbled. Skinned. Grabbing at his pains. Tears came. Stuttering, guttural words belched out, “You said you’d catch me.”

“Yeah. One day you’ll thank me. Cause you need to learn. Life’s hard.”

The Christian prognosticators declare, “This virus is a lesson from God. Turn to Him. Your ruin, loss, fear…? They’re to teach you gratefulness. Life’s hard. Thank God and the virus ends. Cause God loves you. See?”

And in the midst of his sleepless, viral Corona-worry, God said to the boy-become-a-man, “Trust me. Believe. I’ve got you.”

The boy-now-man, turned, thought, I’ll stay back—just to be safe. Lesson learned.

To the theological prognosticators: Be cautious what you attribute to God. Simplistic God-statements inside complex circumstances compromise the true cause of God.

Cause God did not come to us in Christ to back away, turn away, distance, or walk away. God draws near, especially in a virus, cause that what God does.