Job

job
(Job chapters 1-2)
I could not believe my ears!
I never expected to hear what 
my wife just said.
She is hurt. 
I understand that, but so am I. 
She just lost all her children. 
I understand that, but so have I. 
She lost everything. 
So have I- and so much more…
We have been married for 40 years. 
We have been through loads of 
challenges and victories. 
We have trusted God and he has always 
come through for us. 
Until these past few days.
Just last week, my children all came 
home from their different bases scattered 
across the globe to spend time with 
their parents. 
It was Christmas, it was their mother’s 
idea they all come back home. 
We have not all been together in about 
5 years and their mother felt Christmas 
would be a good time for us to all come 
together again as a family.
I looked forward to their arrival, their 
mother personally went to welcome each 
one of them at the airport over 7 days! 
She was that excited! 
Having 10 children is not easy, but she 
pulled it off- she had always wanted lots 
of children. 
She used to say a home is not a home 
without the sound of pattering feet and 
joyous laughter of children. 
I wanted only 4 children, but women 
have a way of always getting what they 
want!
They all arrived safely and the youngest 
threw a party 2 days after the last sibling 
landed. 
And the party was huge! 
It was all over the news, all over social media, 
the talk of town for the next few days.
I live in a city calked Uz.
 My children were all born here and are 
quite popular in the city. 
Whenever they are around like this, the 
whole city is agog with merriment. 
They are very generous, always wanting 
to assist anyone with anything that is not 
beyond their power. 
I am very proud of my children and I love 
them fiercely. 
The only challenge I have with them is 
the parties they host. 
I’m not a very social guy, I don’t understand 
the fun in gathering loads of people together, 
playing music, singing, dancing, eating and 
drinking! I admit I am “Old School”, but such 
a gathering is not my idea of “fun”, if you 
ask me! 
Who knows what else goes on in these 
parties! 
When they throw such parties, 
I’m always filled with apprehension: 
did they curse God in a state of drunkenness? 
Did they fight with anyone? 
Did they molest anyone? 
Did they say what they should not have said? 
Whenever they were done with these parties, 
I offer special prayers for them- in case 
they had misbehaved. 
My wife says I worry too much over them, 
but I cannot help myself. The hazards of 
fatherhood…
Christmas came and went quickly. 
We were all happy together as a family. 
They were to depart for their various 
homes on the 28th of December so they 
could enter the New Year with their own 
families. 
A day before that, the eldest threw his 
own party. 
Later that evening, I got a phone call: 
it was the worst news I ever heard. 
My 10 children were dead! I lost my 
balance for a second and collapsed 
into the sofa. 
WHAT? The phone had fallen off my hand. 
I picked it up, my hands shaking. 
What happened? 
I was told the building in which they had 
the party came down on them. 
As I was trying to wrap my head around 
that, my other phone rang: another bad 
news! The stock market has crashed, 
all my investments gone! 
What is going on? 
Just then, my Personal Assistant came in, 
looking grave. I assumed he had heard 
the news. 
“Sir, I just heard some news…” 
He had tears in his eyes. 
He was close to my children, having 
seen them all grow from the cradle. 
“There has been a fire at the factory sir. 
Everything is razed down.” 
WHAT??? 
I had imagined he was coming to 
console me for the news I just heard, 
not add to it! In that moment, 
my Secretary rushed in with more 
devastating news: My office complex, 
a 35 storey building in Central Area 
is also on fire! At that point, I slumped.
I woke up in the hospital, with my 
wife holding my hand. 
I had been unconscious for 3 days. 
My wife had been crying- 
I felt so sorry for her. 
I have to be strong for this woman, 
I reasoned. 
If she could take the news, why shouldn’t I? 
The doctor came in. “Hello Mr. Job! 
So glad to see you up! I am sorry for 
your loss, sir. Before you came around, 
we had conducted some tests and taken 
some samples that we are analyzing. 
The Chief Medical Director will be here 
to see you shortly…”
I own the hospital, so whenever I come 
here for any treatment, the CMD always 
wants to be personally involved. 
He walked in with a concerned look on 
his face. 
“Mr. Job, good morning. 
I am very, very sorry for your losses sir. 
It is so unfortunate. 
May God give you the fortitude to bear 
the loss sir- our thoughts and prayers 
are with you.” 
“Thank you, doctor”, my wife responded. 
“I don’t know how to say this, but the 
tests we did brought back some bad 
news sir.” 
My wife squeezed my hand she was 
holding. 
“What?” 
The doctor turned to her: “Your 
husband has cancer ma’am. and it is 
already at stage 4.”
She turned and looked at me. 
I saw the look in her eyes. 
It went from confusion to concern 
to anger! 
“God, why? Why?!” 
She asked nobody in particular, she 
was just venting out her frustrations. 
It was too much for someone to take 
in within 3 days! 
Everything crashed. 
If I did not know better, I would have 
said it was a curse. But I know my 
Redeemer lives, and even if my body 
is destroyed, yet in my flesh will I see 
God! 
For the first time, I spoke. 
I told my wife, “Naked I came out of my 
mother’s womb, naked will I return. 
The Lord gave, the Lord has taken: 
Blessed be the Name of the Lord.”
In that moment, my wife could not take 
it anymore: she snapped.
And she let it all out in a scream: 
“Is that what you will say? 
Are you still holding to your integrity? 
Curse God and die!”
I looked at her in shock. 
Suddenly, I couldn’t recognize my wife 
again. 
She had changed, all what she has been 
through these 3 days have broken her.
I squeezed her hand back. 
She was still holding it. 
I said, “Please don’t speak foolishly, dear. 
If we can accept good from God, 
we should have the capacity to accept 
bad also. 
It’s all in the same package…”
 

Haruna Daniels