We have now passed the first anniversary of the beginning of the first Lockdown in England and when you look back over the last year, you might be shocked that we are where we are today. We have experienced so much during this time, queuing to get into supermarkets, having to get used to wearing facemasks and enduring steamed up spectacles, shortages of bacic products in our shops, crossing the road to avoid people, not being able to eat out, go to the theatre, Zoo’s and theme parks, have our holidays cancelled, home educating, home working, spending hours on Zoom and having hair growing out of control with no chance of getting it cut, unless you are fortunate enough to have a hairdesser in your direct family.
During the last year we have seen a massive growth in Covid Heroes, whether it is NHS staff making themselves vulnerable as they try to save the lives of others, teachers, working in different ways to ensure that our children’s education has continued during these difficult months, supermarket staff, refuse collectors postal and parcel delivery people, carers and the army of people who have found themselves on the front line during this horroble time, I guess that we are all truly thankful.
There is also an army of ordinary people who have stepped up, to keep the nation and their communities going. People have been keeping in touch with those who live on their own, trying to ensure that people don’t feel forgatten in all of this. Some folk have been shopping for others, lending a helping hand when it has been needed, injecting some colour into what could otherwise have been a very grey life. People who have done amazing feats, like doing challenges way beyond what one would expect of them, just to earn money to support those in the greatest need in these difficult times.
We like heroes and we seem to particularly love those who are considered to be unsung heroes. Throughout history there have been a whole string of people who have gone down in the great book of life as our heroes, whether they are great sporting stars who have been far stronger, more skilled than others, achieving way beyond what we should really expect. We love actors who can bring stories to life for us, musicians that make our spines tingle with their songs, scientists discovering cures and boggling our minds, explorers, writers, painters, the list goes on and on.
Today is Palm Sunday, the day when the crowds lined the streets of Jerusalem to welcome their hero into their midst. Sadly, his popularity was very short lived and within a few days, the very people who had been shouting “Alleluia” were baying for his blood. As the restrictions surrounding the pandemic start to be relaxed, let us not forget our Covid Heroes. It is so easy to forget what others do for us, it is so easy to forget what God has done for us, if we are not careful, we praise today, and forget tomorrow.
A poem by Rudyard Kipling: “God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle line,
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine-
Lord God of hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget – lest we forget!”