Always winter???


In keeping with our winter theme, I found myself thinking of that wonderful children’s book from the land of Narnia, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” by C S Lewis. (fun fact: we remember C S Lewis in our church calendar on November 22). For those unfamiliar with the story it is set during WW2 and four children go through a magical wardrobe and find themselves in the land of Narnia. When they arrive, the land has for years been existing in a time which is “always winter, but never Christmas”. 

Although we in the southern hemisphere celebrate Christmas in the summer, this evocative phrase still hits the mark. In this land it is dark and cold and most have lost hope because of the curse of the witch. There are small pockets of hope and rumours that one day the Lion, Aslan, will come. 


There are times in our lives that can look bleak, when we struggle to find hope. Perhaps “the time of coronavirus” is a little like that. This virus we first heard about in the new year. Everyone thought it would be like a flu and die down in the summer but, as we have seen in the northern hemisphere, it has not behaved at all like that. Instead it has raged for months, it has dominated our news cycles, with illness, death and economic recession. We do not know when it will end, it feels like it will never end. We had hope we had overcome it in New Zealand but just this past week there has been a new outbreak, our hopes were dashed. 


Spoiler alert for the book: Aslan does come, the four children have a part to play and in doing so they learn about themselves and about sacrificial love overcoming evil. I wonder how we can bring hope to those around us? How does Christ want us to behave in this time of “always coronavirus, never normal life”? What can we learn about ourselves during this time? 


Sacrificial love in the time of coronavirus includes hand washing, social distancing, cancelling plans, wearing masks. It has involved for us (and still involves for so many) a eucharistic fast. Even as this season seems unending it is these and other marks of love and caring for others that bring about spring-like glimpses of hope in the midst of winter. 

Rev Sue Genner

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