Remember what’s important as we embrace new normal

I must admit, I was concerned when I saw the scenes from some cities when the pubs opened. I was proud of our city when I heard we behaved well in all these circumstances.

We returned to church. We were excited. In many ways, it is a learning experience as we do things a little differently. We worked hard on putting the guidelines in place. We observed all the distancing and singing rules. We got to church and did enjoy ourselves, even if some things were a strange experience indeed.

Two things went wrong. Midway through the camera switched off. Shortly afterwards, the laptop which projects everything onto the screen switched off.

I was later to discover there was a simple reason for both failures. The laptop had not been plugged in and the camera had not been charged up. I felt slightly stupid.

Often, we rush into things, concentrating on big/new ‘important’ things. It is easy to get distracted and forget the ‘smaller’ or ‘less important’ things. The truth is these are often the things that allow everything else to happen.

As people we are the same. We place importance on the big, powerful, ‘talented’, or what we perceive as popular and/or important people. We forget our importance.

Jesus teaches we are all of equal importance in the eyes, heart and mind of God.

Scripture says we are fearfully and wonderfully made. There is a negative, misunderstanding of a phrase, ‘fear the Lord your God’. When need to see it in the same way as he fearfully made us. We are not saying he fears us. He took the upmost care in making us due to our importance.

Do you have different scenes from the world appear on your screen when you turn your computer on? Are they not breathtaking? He who created them all says it is we who are wonderfully made. Placed over those standards, how beautiful and important are you?

We are made. That means we have a purpose. Each is different, yet equally important. And we are all, each and every one, wonderful. We may place levels of importance on positions, we may place values on things in this world. He who made it holds you as dearly as everything else in the universe.

In fact, more so, he made you wonderfully, and with tremendous care.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The Reverend Peter McCool is a paster at South Sheffield Church, ​​​​​​​Greenhill Parkway, Greenhill – see southsheffieldchurch.co.uk