(Essay) Are we waiting for Samuel Beckett's Godot or God's grace?

When will the COVID 19 spread come to an end? Even if NZ is in a better situation,  there are still heaps of outbreaks of coronavirus worldwide.

It looks like only when the whole world is free from the pandemic simultaneously, each country can say it's okay.

A few months ago, I read an article in the Washington Post, where the editor said we all became Vladimir and Estragon in Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot.

I agree with him. The two characters of the play were waiting for Godot to the end. However, they had no idea who Godot was and when he would arrive.

It's just like us now. We are waiting for something in the pandemic. But what is it? Is it a cure or a vaccine or a collective immunity? What is Godot we are waiting for, and when will it arrive? 

I remember the ending of The Plague by Albert Camus. The epidemic was gone on its own in nine months since the first outbreak.

The pestilence was a new kind, like the current new coronavirus. Updated medicine was urgently needed for treatment.

The new serum had been dramatically developed through many failures of the clinical trial. But the novel doesn't say the remedy was the decisive factor that ended the plague.

People in the story anticipated the plague would withdraw as it got cold, but that didn't happen. The epidemic was still going on, despite the first winter cold coming in December.

By the way, the strong plague suddenly weakened in January. Patients began being recovered, and alive rats were moving around the city.

The government announced officially that the plague had been eliminated as of the 25th of January.

The novel doesn't let readers know the exact reason for the elimination of the plague. It remains mysterious.

But we Christians confess there was the grace of God behind the salvation from the misery.

The grace of God is like sunlight for both the evil and the good. (Matthew 5:45) But we respond differently. Christians will praise God, but non-Christians will honor their luck or effort or principles of nature.

We are going through tough times. Under the pandemic, we feel like all humankind is kneeling before the coronavirus. 

What shall we wait? The Meaningless Godot? Or God's grace, that is, Jesus who saved us?