Immanuel: God with us

God is Greater! The electronic sign that now festoons my high school proclaims. This is the photo that accompanies the news article about how Immanuel Schools is making the decision to open for business as usual this August, welcoming unmasked kids on to campus. This is in defiance to the mandate in California to close schools for now, until we can get a handle on this coronavirus and stop the spread. In part, this is how we stop the spread—by keeping people apart, keeping out of shared enclosed rooms with people who are not in our own households. But Immanuel proclaims: God is Greater.

The next day after they opened, I watched with bemusement and chagrin while Governor Newsom addressed the administrators of my high school, now a K-12, on national news. Wow, my little Central Valley Christian high school in national news. What a way of gaining notoriety. How embarrassing. 

Newsom seemed to be a little at a loss for words. Shocked that a school would be this cavalier, as to not only put kids and administrators at risk, but also flagrantly break the rules that he’d set with the guidance of top health experts. It is shocking! But, you know, God is greater.

As the months have dragged on, I have also gotten tired. Tired of being cooped up, of not seeing friends and family as we’d like. I’ve watched with envy as the rest of the world handles this disease so much better than we have—not perfectly, as humans are humans after all. But as my Bible teacher—from Immanuel—wrote to me from New Zealand where he now lives, New Zealand trusted its public health officials and followed the guidelines. And then they had no cases and were able to fully open up, with no precautions at all. They are, of course, different from most places in the world, as they are on an island and can fully keep out all outsiders and control who comes in. Fully two months ago another friend who moved to New Zealand was telling us about the country reopening. They quarantine anyone who is coming home—truly quarantine, as they are required to stay in a facility that is supervised—and they do not have to take any precautions at all anymore. It is not a part of their life except for what they hear from outside their borders. 

I am tired because people like those making decisions at Immanuel are prolonging this whole thing. Those of us who are being responsible are bearing the brunt of their irresponsibility. 

God is greater. In the Central Valley, we never got any snow, so we didn’t have snow days. But the fog was a huge problem. Sometimes I couldn’t see across the street. I once was on a date and the driver had his door open to watch the yellow lines, since he couldn’t see the road in front of his car. The schools were delayed when this happened—we had Foggy Day Schedule. Sometimes it was canceled altogether. 

Was God not greater then? 

Seems like every year there was a 100 car pileup on the freeway, because of the fog. It was not messing around—it was dangerous. 

Was God greater? 

But why is this about whether God is greater? That is really not what is at issue here. God gave us brains to be able to reason. They are there to help us make good decisions. We don’t decide to quarantine because of fear, or because we don’t trust God. We do it because it is wise, even though oh so hard. Fog is dangerous. Covid is dangerous. 

And God gave us the capacity for compassion. For love. For caring about the human family. While it is hurting themselves, it is also hurting all of those around when they decide to flaunt the rules. The rules are there to help us be loving and compassionate to our communities. By flaunting the rules, they are saying that they don’t care about their communities. God is greater. 

To a large extent, this is an unsurprising development. The church of my childhood is one of blind trust. Supposedly in God. But who interprets what God is saying, well, that’s not something we talk about. 

I have had this in my head to write since I saw that article. But today I saw that Immanuel Schools is raising money to cover legal fees. Yeah, no way am I donating, Immanuel. God is greater.