According to the UN’s Inger Andersen, ‘Nature is sending us a message through the coronavirus pandemic. ‘ Humanity is placing too many pressures on the natural world and the Covid-19 outbreak is ‘a clear warning shot’ to today’s civilisation.

But tor people on the front line, there is no time to think of what the virus may be saying to us. Their thoughts are about the next sick patient to save, the next vulnerable person to get shopping to, the next lonely person needing a phone call. Dealing with the coronavirus is all-consuming.

But for those of us staying at home comes an opportunity: we have the time to reflect. If we come through this pandemic safely, will it just be to get back to all we enjoyed before? Or will we have a new appreciation for family and friends and creation? As we realise that many of the things we base our lives on are more precarious than we imagined, will we decide to live differently? What message is the coronavirus sending you about your life?

Jesus gives us a message at the end of the Bible: ‘Behold I am making all things new’. It is hard to feel that in the face of a rampant disease that takes away those we love. But one thing is for sure. If this pandemic loosens its hold, God won’t click his fingers to make everything as it was before. He will call us to be partners with Him in making all things new. What might that newness of life look like for you and for God’s world?

REV CANON STEPHEN BOWEN