‘Omnia mirari etiam tritissima’

‘ everything is miraculous even the commonplace’. Carl Linnaeus. Perhaps if there is a silver lining to the whole covid saga it is that seemingly endless cycle of lock downs has given us the chance to wonder at the ‘commonplace’. Before the pandemic life was like the eurostar rushing at such a speed that the world around us was reduced to a blur. But Covid has given us the opportunity to return to the steam age the air is clear and the beauty of nature for all to see.

But I think the wonder of things that we take for granted goes much further. Hilaire Belloc wrote ‘ the church must be in good hands seeing the people who have run it. It could not have possibly gone on existing without help from above’. If you stop and think for a minute about the evil, greedy incompetents who have been involved in running the Christian church over the centuries and the dictators who up to the present day have sought to destroy Christianity it is nothing short of a miracle that it still exists.

History is testament to the fact that lies and falsehoods are invariably destroyed. Only the truth is indivisible, pure and cannot be extinguished. Things that are true always survive no matter what. If Christ wasn't divine the church would have been long since swept away the odds against its survival are just too great. One only has to go back to the beginning Christ versus Caesar Augustus the roman empire and the outcome centuries later. The house built on rock survives everything else is lost in the storm. ‘ I have overcome the world’ John 16 33