“God said, ‘Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so.”

Last night I followed the dog out into the garden whilst she ran around sniffing the air and doing her necessary business. The half moon was shining brightly, casting deep shadows along the fence-line. I looked up again at the familiar constellations which have hung above me all my life. There, high up, almost right above was the Big Dipper which forms the tail of the Great Bear, Ursa Major, and whose bright stars, Dubhe and Merak, point the way to Polaris, the North Star. In times of change I take comfort in knowing that these are the same stars that men have stared at for millennia, and by which they have measured the seasons, navigated the oceans, charted the world, and gained faith in the face of impossibilities. 

“The LORD took Abram outside and said, ‘Look up at the sky and count the stars – if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ And he believed…”

Today is my birthday. I am not yet old, but I can no longer truthfully claim that youth is entirely on my side. But, as I look up into the darkness, tiny points of light allow me to glimpse the deep, deep past. I have seen the light from stars as they were hundreds of millennia before the first human walked on the earth. I look back and allow the deep past to propel me into the future. I look up again and I hear the echo of voices.

“The heavens declare the glory of God;

    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;

    night after night they reveal knowledge.

They have no speech, they use no words;

    no sound is heard from them.

Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,

    their words to the ends of the world.”

In this new Coronavirus Age, we are forging a different relationship with time and the world. Many of us who have been used to the beat of the city, and the urgency of the moment, are slowing to the rhythms of the earth. The danger is that we may find ourselves, as Roger Waters warned us, ‘Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day’ so that all we do is ‘Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.’ But as we slow, we also have the opportunity to allow ourselves to rediscover a pace, which is more creative, more productive, more fertile, more life-giving. I fully intend to make much better use of all the time I have left. As one early Christian leader said, 

“Make the best use of your time, despite all the difficulties of these days.”

[Genesis 1:14-15; Genesis 15:5-6; Psalm 19:1-4; Ephesians 5:16]

Chris Denne