As a parrot, whether in this house or out in the wilds, it’s a beautiful thing to open up my wings and fly! To fly to wherever the wind or my inclination takes me. My wings are an expression of freedom. I know that humans have legs that they can plod around on, but it’s not quite the same.
Photo: http://true-wildlife.blogspot.com
But now we all find ourselves living at home under lockdown. And suddenly, the freedom that we once enjoyed and took for granted has been curtailed. All because of a microscopic virus. Something so tiny, yet so powerful, that it’s knocked our lives out of their normal orbit.
So, from the confines of our homes, can we really live life to the full?
· We can’t attend worship, but is the church now in our hearts?
· We can’t hug, touch or kiss others, but is there still deep love within us?
· Even if we, ourselves, have been untouched by the Coronavirus, have we built a cathedral of compassion inside for those less fortunate?
· Is this a time for us to do some deep, inner soul searching, or a time for us to complain about our loss of earnings, our stalled career plans, our cancelled holidays, and all of the leisure activities that we can no longer enjoy?
· Is this a time to unlock those heavy, dingy doors that have been slammed shut inside us over many years?
Perhaps there is one question which summarises all of the others:
Is it time to ask who is really in ultimate control of our lives: God or the virus?
Whether we like it or not, the current lockdown means living with more humility. We’re all having to comply with new rules and regulations imposed by our government and health experts. And we will be breaking the law if we fail to comply.
God’s world also comes with some rules and regulations which make humility central to our way of living. And just as with the virus restrictions, God’s rules are to protect us from ourselves and others. And perhaps, most worryingly, to protect others from ourselves. As one Italian pastor recently put it:
“Anything is a blessing that shows me my own arrogance.”
Life in lockdown is never going to be easy. But what will be the end result, apart from the eradication of the virus……..?
“No flowers wear so
Lovely a blue as those
Which grow at the foot of
A glacier; no stars gleam
So brightly as those which
Glisten in the polar sky;
No water tastes so sweet as
That which springs amid
The desert sand; and no faith is so precious as that
Which lives and triumphs in adversity.”
(Charles Spurgeon)
It’s not the good times which shape us. It’s how we come through adversity which counts for everything. We need to open up the dingy doors of our hearts to let God inside to do His work. So that we can finally blossom and flourish, with a vibrant energy, like a parrot flying with wings outstretched on the breath of the Holy Spirit……
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