Socks on the Washing Line

I’ve just hung the washing out on the line. Usual stuff – jeans, shirts, underwear, socks…

I remembered teaching maths lessons on chance and probability…

‘…I have 4 red socks and 2 blue socks in my drawer. I pull out two socks at random. What’s the probability that I will pull out a pair of red socks?’

The probability of some of life’s events can be calculated.

Yesterday’s paper announced the recent safe arrival of two tiger cubs at Banham Zoo:

‘Following a successful genetically matched conservation programme pairing, the birth follows two years of careful planning. The mother tiger, Mishka, had been identified as a genetically compatible mate for the male tiger, Kuzma, who was bred at the zoo 13 years ago.’

We try to engineer our lives to shorten the odds and get desired outcomes….

Daughter-Jo and family still are suffering with Covid. It’s not as bad as many, but it’s been 10 days now. They’re still isolated and feeling unwell.

One recurring lesson from the past eighteen months seems to be the randomness of covid… and life’s general apparent randomness… a fit young man has cancer, a family member goes ‘off the rails’, a close friend has dementia…

There’s no mathematical probability-formula for calculating many ‘why’ questions…

This morning I read again… Jesus’ fishermen-disciples are out in a boat. Jesus goes to sleep. A storm comes. Jesus stays asleep. The disciples panic and wake Jesus. Jesus calms the storm.

There’s a strange mixture of the unpredictable, random, improbable storm… Jesus working in powerful but unpredictable ways… disciples seeing Jesus in control – no chance or percentage probability of what he’s capable of or what he’s achieved.

Yesterday… I spoke to several Christian friends who’d seen their personal specific prayers answered. To them this was not a random event….

Today… My life’s unpredictable; I trust my God in that unpredictability; I won’t wear red socks, however many are in my drawer.