Healing the Wounds by Karen Jones

I don’t know about you, but I have been surprised at how I’ve been feeling lately. Normally if a man I didn’t know were to call me ‘Darlin’, my hackles would rise, but when the man from the removals company called me ‘darlin’’ on the phone the other day my eyes welled with tears. He ended the conversation by asking me to stay safe and it felt genuine, like he really meant it, like my life mattered to him.

I’ve been reading Richard Rohr’s The Universal Christ. It has reminded me of how I viewed other human beings after my baptism at 18 years of age, way back in 1983. I used to view everyone in those heady days, as belonging to God, whether they were aware of it or not: God living in them and them living in God. I understood my calling was to honour and love people as if they were God himself and to awaken them to his presence if they were unawares. With the arrival of a pandemic I’m experiencing a renewal of my first-love-perspective – a sense of collective unity and deep affection for others.

When I wrote Love Letter, the last in the Babe’s Bible trilogy, I immersed myself in the history of the destruction of Jerusalem. What struck me most forcibly about that period of history was the lack of respect for human life that was displayed by all. It was appalling and very disturbing to read. Even now it seems to me that the wound that was inflicted on that geographic location in that period of history has never really healed, but been picked at again and again like a festering wound. 

With that in mind, shift your bird’s eye view down on to the geographical map of the UK. Not the Roman Empire, but a microscopic virus is invading and conquering our country, bringing devastation and desolation in its wake, possibly changing our lives forever. How will historians write about this period of our history? Will we go down only as those who fought over toilet roll in supermarkets and emptied shelves of provisions with no thought of our neighbours? Or has the greatest commandment – to love one another as you love yourself – had an impact on humanity? Have we matured since 70AD?

I hope so.

It may sound daft, but I was genuinely surprised and encouraged by the feeling I had of being valued by that removals man on the phone. And this experience has been repeated many times over in the last few weeks with friends, family and with kind strangers.

A Jewish friend of mine had a dream a few months ago of us both laughing together. My initial thought was, ‘Wouldn’t that be wonderful! It would be a sign that maybe the hard times were over, and we are happily free from hardship and difficulty.’ But as the COVID-19 crisis has deepened she has been sending me funny clips on WhatsApp to distract and uplift me. The other day we were really belly laughing over a particular clip, and it struck me that perhaps her dream had been a premonition of this: not laughter due to the tough times being over, but in spite of them. Here we are right in the middle of difficulty and hardship and we’re loving each other and laughing till we cry.

I hope that the wound of COVID-19 on our national psyche will eventually heal. It’s an invader that we will overcome because God is with us. It will only become an infected scab if we turn against each other, biting and devouring one another. That’s the kind of wound that festers for centuries. I hope this time in our history is remembered for the unity and humour we shared and the deep affection with which we held one another.

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Each day, we will post a short article by one of Darton, Longman and Todd’s amazing authors, offering a personal reflection on our current situation in life. Sometimes this will be written with reference to one of their books, and sometimes about how they are living in response to the coronavirus and our current world situation. We hope it will give you a taste of the depth and diversity of DLT’s list – books for heart, mind and soul that aim to meet the needs and interests of all.

Today’s post is by Karen Jones, author of the Babe’s Bible fiction trilogy: Gorgeous Grace, Sister Acts and Love Letter.