Spend time with the timeless

I CONFESS: I am just taking a break from some early Christmas shopping – online of course, no jostling through the crowds, no getting a lump in my throat as I hear Christmas carols played over the store speakers (I am such an emotional drip when it comes to carols!) It all seems very calculating and sanitised. The parcels come multi-wrapped in layers of plastic I do not need, and it will all be done without breaking into a sweat. It is so different.

The object of my shopping focus are the grandchildren. They are only a few minutes away in the car, but I miss them. I miss the easy popping in and out, that natural way of being that we all took for granted. Still there is no guarantee we will be able to be in the same room on Christmas Day, and so it will be with countless families and friends.

The only thing we can be certain of is that some things are uncertain.

For many of us, the foundations of our lives have been shaken in the past six months – family and health, jobs and relationships. The familiar fabric of society has revealed itself to be fragile.

A vaccine looks likely, but not immediate.

So how shall we live with this vacillating future – not in an escapist, head-in-the-sand sort of way but purposefully in the world all around us?

Let me suggest we spend more time with the timeless.

Could we go somewhere that could be any year, without any reference to 2020! And find ourselves restored and renewed.

I choose to visit trees first, maybe a wood, but it could be a park, or your own back garden. Spending time with trees even the bare-branched ones of autumn, connects us with hope and future as we see their timeless beauty against the November sky, seasonally changing without force or intervention. We could be anywhere at any time.

I also choose, to look into the eyes of someone else. They say that eyes are the window of our soul. To look into someone’s eyes is timeless and boundless. Recognising our shared humanity and connecting. We are all on this journey together.

And I choose my Christian faith. In the coming days I will read the Bible stories that prepare me for Christmas. Stories of timeless truth, of God who so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son to come and live amongst us and die for our sake.

How we spend these weeks preparing and planning and enjoying Christmas will be very different this year. But the reason for the season remains the same is timeless. We are loved.

■ Reverend Josephine Tatum is a chaplain with Nottingham Workplace Chaplaincy