Thought for the Day

As delivered to the BBC Radio Bristol Breakfast with Emma show just now, live from my conservatory:

There was a film on social media recently of two stags fighting. Locked antlers and a clear focus on outmuscling each other. Doe-eyed only.

What we could see, which the two stags could not, was the rapidly approaching predator - a big cat. Too late the stags separated and ran. Too late for one of them. Survival of the fittest at its reddest and bloodiest.

With notable exceptions around the world nations have put aside their differences for a while to concentrate on a common enemy. As the film Gladiator so memorably put it, 'Whatever comes through that door, we're going to do better if we face it together.'

So, in a spirit of facing it together, we hear of the fine community mindedness of people offering their time and business skills for medical equipment manufacture. We hear of volunteers, of neighbourliness, of a willingness to embrace the new arrangements of social distancing. And an outbreak of online creativity to keep us distracted the while.

I've enjoyed people showing off their new skills from tik-tok to topiary, binging on box-sets, genning up on general knowledge.

Have we forgotten our petty disputes and little local difficulties (beat) for ever?

Probably not. I'm a realist. St Peter wrote about trials as things that test us for a little while. He didn't trust God to get him out of them. He trusted God to bring the community through them, stronger and more together.

My hardship? To stay in.

What did you do during the war daddy? I did my pilates class on the landing son. Now, where did I put that jigsaw?

As St Peter put it, grace and peace be yours in abundance.