Dear Friends,
On the bookshelf behind my desk there is a birthday card that was sent to me some years ago which says ‘What if the hokey cokey is really what it’s all about’? It has caused great amusement to my colleagues who have spotted it during ‘Zoom’ meetings! It was sent as an amusing card, but it does pose a serious question. ‘What if’?
There are a lot of people who are saying ‘What if?’ at the moment. What if the Chinese doctor who first spotted the corona virus had been taken seriously? What if the UK government had closed its borders earlier? What if lockdown had come sooner? What if the slave trade had never happened? What if the Christian nations had been more serious about Christian priorities and Christian worship? What if? But we cannot live on ‘what ifs’.
At a time like this, when we are all suffering from the loneliness and restriction of lockdown, it is so easy to say ‘what if?’ and wish that things had been done differently. But we cannot change history, and we have to go on from where we are. And at this time when restrictions are tentatively beginning to be lifted, surely what we should be thinking about is the fresh start that will be ours, and the ways that we might do things differently.
There are of course, many things that we want to resume, and many things that we value. But we would all agree that there are also things that we could do better. So now is the time when we should stop thinking ‘what if?’ and start thinking about the opportunities that will be ours to make the world a better place.
The old hymn says ‘Jesus bids us shine – you in your small corner and I in mine.’ Each one of us has an opportunity to make a difference in our own small corner. So let us try to make that a positive difference, to bring the light of Christ to our own small corner of the world, and thus, do our bit to make the wider world a better place.
With love and blessings
Marion