Look at the Birds

How quickly the world can change. Just a month ago, life felt 95% normal. Yes, there was a vague awareness of some virus going around but it was mostly somewhere else. Now our entire nation is shut down. We are confined to our homes. The economy has all but shuddered to a halt. Life is eerily quiet.

Church is locked shut. All services are suspended. Midweek ministry has stopped. Youth and children’s work are on pause. Everything has had to be moved online. The REACh phase 3 work has also had to stop temporarily as the work is deemed non-essential.

It’s at times like this that Life Groups come into their own as they already are a network of spiritual friendship, mutual pastoral care and practical service. 

We have tried to ensure that the most at risk among us have some kind of regular contact and offer of support.

I hope we’ll all make an effort to keep in touch with each other by phone, text or via the dizzying array of social media options.  Some find social isolation almost crushing and, though electronic media can never be an adequate substitute for face-to-face contact, it might be a precious lifeline for many at a time like this.

This is a time of worry. Will I, or any of my loved-ones, get infected with Covid-19? If so, are we healthy enough to survive it? Am I spiritually prepared for the worst?

Have we got enough in the cupboards to keep us going? By sheer grace, most of our lives we have an abundance to feast on. The Lord taught us to ask only for daily bread; a supply of basic necessities for 24 hours. He gives abundantly more...

How long is all this going to go on for?  When will touch become normal again? How long can I keep sane with the children off school indefinitely? Will I still have a job when life returns to normal?

Jesus said, “Do not worry about what you will eat or drink or about what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 7).

This is bad. It is deadly serious. But it will pass. And when it’s all over, God will still reign on his throne then as we trust he does now.