Few of us predicted that a new virus would dominate 2020. Even here, in the midst of it, it remains hard to accept. This reflection considers how much the year has required us to wait; and what we learn from that.

When we started the year we had no idea how our lives would be turned upside down. We could not have imagined what was coming. This second phase of lockdown feels more difficult than the first, partly because of the amount of time already spent enduring the pandemic.

2020 has been different for each of us. Some have been busier than ever, without a moment to ourselves. Others have been isolated and alone. Some have faced redundancy, business closure and financial worry. Others are unwell, with some affected by long-covid symptoms many weeks after first getting ill. We have been grieving in different ways: for loved ones, for things lost, for hopes that will not now come to pass.

Have some of us, also, found some comfort in the slowing down and in the waiting?

Waiting. There has been a lot of waiting this year.

Waiting for decisions. Waiting for news. Waiting for schools to go back. Waiting for the chance to be with those we love. Time has taken on a different quality. In some moments, the minutes and hours have gone too fast; at others, they seemed to stand still.

Waiting, when we do not know how long it will take, when it will end or how it will end, is difficult. We remember the prisoner, the patient on a waiting list for treatment, the parent whose child has not been in touch…..

There is a fascinating passage in one of the letters of the New Testament about the notion of time on an eternal scale:

“Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.

The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.

Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire?

But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.”

— Peter's second letter, Chapter 3, verses 8-13

Exercise

Set yourself a timer for five minutes. Use that time to read and reflect on the passage above. You may want to read it over and over or stop on particular words or phrases that draw your attention.

As we enter into lockdown again, what does waiting look like, for you?
Are there ways you can rest on God or the Divine and put the time into God’s hands?
As you wait for a new heaven and a new earth, what are you called to be and do?

Closing blessing