This week consumers in the UK are nervously holding their breath, waiting to see whether their power company goes bankrupt and their favourite fizzy drink disappears from the shelves. The two are not unrelated. Both are the result of the latest Black Swan. First coined by statesman Nassim Nicholas Taleb a Black Swan denotes a rare event that changes all forecasts for the future. The Covid pandemic has proved to be our Black Swan – wholesale gas prices have now soared, leading indirectly to a huge shortage in CO2, the gas that has become an essential part of food production and delivery.
But perhaps none of this should come as a huge surprise. The Bible describes the very first Black Swan from which many others have since derived. The story of Adam and Eve depicts a perfect creation at the heart of which humankind lived in perfect harmony with their Creator. They had free will, the gift that allowed for the beauty of loving relationship to flourish. Why on earth would they have any reason to turn their backs on the God who so loving created and cared for them? Unthinkable you would assume. But that’s exactly what happened. Unexpectedly and with profound consequences for the whole of history, humankind rejected God.
We will have to wait to see what solution will be found to deal with our Covid Black Swan. The Good News is that 2,000 years ago God in his love provided in Jesus the solution to the original Black Swan.