On Earthquakes and Aphids

     On discussing certain news items recently, a friend expressed dismay that God had seen fit to include earthquakes in his design for Creation. Why? They are impossible to harness, manage, or even minimise. They seem to bring no advantages. They strike and destroy and kill totally at random, smiting the guilty and the innocent, the possessors and the poor. They are an indiscriminate and inescapable blight on all humanity, and on all creation.
     I felt sad that I could offer no shred of mitigation or comfort.
     Then later, in my garden, I think I found a clue. I discovered a rose bush infested with greenfly. It was pretty bad, but a quick burst of the pesticide squirter would soon set it right. They weren’t as bad as the big, hairy, super aphids that attack only Lupins. Huge things, they are, flightless, motionless, even. They just crowd there, sucking out life. To a ladybird, they must look like Thanksgiving turkeys.
     Then I thought of all the other plagues that rage through my garden from time to time- the black spot on the roses, the grey fungus which rolls up all the pear-tree leaves, the canker on the apple twigs the moles in the grass, nettles, bind-weed, thistles, goose grass, twitch, the slugs and snails on beans, bedding plants and courgettes. You could write your own list, I’m sure.
     Of course, its all avoidable; just flood the lot with ready-mix concrete and Astroturf it. Seriously- then find the ‘Blooms’ catalogue, the people who make the wonderfully life-like artificial flowers. Silk or plastics; I don’t know which- they are really beautiful. Not just flowers like roses, lilies, orchids, fuchsias and freesias, but grasses, cacti, evergreens, and fruits- apples, oranges, pears, plums, lemons, raspberries and blackberries in sprays, elderflowers, trees in pots. It would cost a substantial fortune, not a small one, and it would take some organising, but only once. There is some very appealing ‘wild life’ to be had, too- artificial birds finished with real feathers, very cute pussies, puppies, bunnies and such, with real fur and dewy eyes. Put the whole thing under a large, elegant conservatory- there are plenty of big posh jobbies to choose from, and it would be safe from wind, frost and rain, and you could spend every day admiring your perfect garden, permanently in full bloom and harvest, teeming with wild life. But it would have no life at all. It would be perfectly sterile, perfectly dead. Would you prefer it?
     And that was God’s choice. He didn’t have to include earthquakes or aphids. Incidentally, have you noticed God doesn’t seem to attach as much importance to size as we do? There is possibly as much creativity required for an aphid as for an earthquake.
     God could have created a perfect world, sterile, safe, reliable, predictable. Instead he chose to create a living thing, and we need to remember that the earth is living, too, changing, developing, growing, moving on. I don’t presume to be able to give my friend the complete answer to his sadness at having to live with earthquakes, but at least I might be able to give him a clue as to the direction in which the answer lies.
     I must remember to tell him about the two aphids who met in a bar, and one asked the other-
     “Why did God invent Pesticide?”  He might be able to think of a punch line.