To be honest, we have been a bit ‘bowed down’ of late. 2021 for us is turning out to be harder than 2020. Thankfully none of us have been blighted by covid itself, but the side effects have been all consuming. We have worked from home, home schooled (during GCSE years too), been keyworkers, attended funerals online as well as leading them for the hand full of nearest and dearest at the crem and countless others virtually. I have taken to livestreaming for worship and leading Holy Communion from the front doorstep (recorded onto YouTube for all posterity). Some of us have been placed in self-isolation once or twice. We have worn face masks, kept our distance, painted rainbows, clapped for the NHS, gagged and sneezed over rapid flow tests.

We have held family quizzes, zoomed with grandparents, had cocktails with friends (also online), cuddled with teenagers as we have worked our way through the entire back catalogue of Netflix (or so it seems). There will be good memories mixed in too.

It’s been a bit like playing Covid Bingo, and with this final impact of ‘redundancy’ it feels like the bingo card is full, ‘House!’ Except of course we don’t have a house.

We are trying to look upon these changes with an air of expectation, and hope, but having a loved one in hospital long term has taken the edge off that positivity. Thankfully one of us has been able to visit, albeit with surgical face mask, plastic apron, and sweat inducing latex gloves.

Into all this, the Sunday Psalm brought the image of stone to mind…

The Lord is faithful in all his words,

and gracious in all his deeds.

The Lord upholds all who are falling,

and raises up all who are bowed down.

Psalm 145

Here in the Hampshire villages many of our older buildings, including the churches, are built from flints. Stones which have been ‘knapped’ into shape so that they can be supported by, and give support to, others, creating a building strong enough to last centuries. We each have a stone to help us ponder throughout the week. These stones are not flint, they are all different in shape, size, colour, a geologist could identify other differences. They, like the flints which have been knapped into shape, have had their fair share of knocks over the generations which make them the stones they are now.

We are going through a season of ‘hard knocks’, but God has promised to raise us up. Perhaps God will raise us into a ‘church’ of a different kind? Perhaps the plans that God has for us as a family and as individuals require us to be knocked into shape? Whatever is in store for us as a family I will hold on to the promise that God is faithful and gracious and raises all who are bowed down.