Is this an act of God, asked Abram & Sarai when they were barren
Hagar when she was abused by Abram & Sarai
Job when he watched everything he loved drip away
Joseph when he was cast into the pit
Puah & Shiprah when they were ordered to put the babies in the water
Moses when he understood his people were enslaved
The Prodigal wondered when he was lost, the widow thought when she lived on nothing, Mary & Martha questioned when Lazarus died, the disciples cried when they arrested Jesus for heresy.
Is this an act of God we ask when the hurricanes howl and the tornados terrorize and the earthquakes wreak havoc?
How about a world pandemic is this an act of God?
Where is our Force Majeure? We want a new contract. If it’s an act of God then there’s nothing under our control and we can just wait for God’s helicopter to save us.
But Abraham & Sarah became the parents of nations
Hagar kept her child safe & found her freedom
Joseph was raised from the pit the Pharaoh’s advisor
Puah & Shiprah hid the babies from the Pharaoh
Moses lead the slaves to freedom
The Prodigal came home, the Widow gave away her mites, Lazarus was healed and returned to Mary and Martha, and Jesus rose from the dead.
I don’t really know what an act of God is.
But I know who God is, God is the God of jubilee, the God healing, the God of redos, reconciliations and resurrections.
We can enact the will of God. We are Abraham & Sarah, Joseph, Puah & Shiprah, Moses. When we enact the will of God return home, we become healed, give to the poor and become resurrected with Christ.
Are we an act of God? God I pray that we are.
More Prayers & Resources for the Pandemic
Author: katyandtheword
Pastor Katy has enjoyed ministry at New Covenant since 2010, where the church has solidified its community focus. She now works at Capital CFO plus as the Non Profit Director. All opinions expressed on this blog are her own and do not reflect those of Capital CFO plus. Prior to that she studied both Theology and Christian Formation at Princeton Theological Seminary. She also served as an Assistant Chaplain at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital and as the Christian Educational Coordinator at Bethany Presbyterian at Bloomfield, NJ.
She is an writer and is published in Enfleshed, Sermonsuite, Presbyterian's today and Outlook. She writes prayers, liturgy, poems and public theology and is pursuing her doctorate in ministry in Creative Write and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
She enjoys working within and connecting to the community, is known to laugh a lot during service, and tells as many stories as possible. Pastor Katy loves reading Science Fiction and Fantasy, theater, arts and crafts, music, playing with children and sunshine, and continues to try to be as (w)holistically Christian as possible.
"Publisher after publisher turned down A Wrinkle in Time," L'Engle wrote, "because it deals overtly with the problem of evil, and it was too difficult for children, and was it a children's or an adult's book, anyhow?" The next year it won the prestigious John Newbery Medal.
Tolkien states in the foreword to The Lord of the Rings that he disliked allegories and that the story was not one.[66] Instead he preferred what he termed "applicability", the freedom of the reader to interpret the work in the light of his or her own life and times.
View all posts by katyandtheword
katyandtheword 
Today, this post “act of God” gives me life.Thank you!