My Dear Friends,

As we watch the news at the present time we are filled with foreboding as we hear about the coronavirus and the suffering that is about to be released on the world. Every commentator tells us that we must take extra precautions but at the same time there is almost an underlying message that no matter what we do it will have little effect on the final outcome.

It’s a bit like those children who, when the nations were considering the effects of an atomic war, were told that they should shelter under their desks to avoid the blast.

The effect of this is to fill us with despair and as we struggle to overcome this we reach out with clutching hands to grasp at the material things around us hoping that they will give us some form of security.

People are stockpiling goods partially because they have a fear that goods will disappear and partially because it gives them a feeling of security. Yes even toilet rolls can help us to feel secure in a constantly changing world.

The truth about life that nobody ever wants to face is that every one of us is doomed to die and there is nothing that we can do about it.

The world is flimsy and has no real substance. Our wealth is tied up in things that are disintegrating even as we watch. Brand new cars polished and shone by new owners become tomorrow’s scrap. Houses in which we take pride become tomorrow’s building sites as they are reduced to rubble.

If this is where our confidence lies we are truly doomed to despair and instances like this present virus attack destroys all the foundations of our life.

However if our lives are founded on the truth of the Gospel we can face each and every danger with the perfect confidence that we do not stand alone but alongside the creator. He acknowledges us as his children and embraces us with his love.

One day each of us will be laid to rest in a small wooden box and our bodies will be returned to the elements from which they have come.

Peter the great apostle compares our life as being lived in a temporary tent which will one day be destroyed so that we can be given a true eternal accommodation which can never be harmed or taken away.

I don’t know what this virus will mean for you or for me. Maybe we will look back on it and recount it to future generation. Maybe we will be part of that large number of people who will succumb and not survive.

Whatever the outcome Jesus says to each one of us ‘Do not be afraid I am going to prepare a place for you. In my Father’s house there are many habitations if it were not so I would have told you. When the time comes, whether now or in the years to come, I will come back for you and lead you to that place. So you need not have any fear. I am the creator of the universe and understand its workings’.

Because of this I believe God is calling us, to reject the fear that we all feel and embrace the truth of the Gospel that we are truly loved by a compassionate God. He will lead us through this experience and by it, help us to mature into the people He wants us to be. It’s the only grounds on which we can avoid the despair brought on by the knowing that we are under a “sentence of death,” whatever form that death takes.

The coronavirus story will run its course but it may be a wake-up call from God reminding us of our mortality and the precariousness of life.

Roy