How will we recover as individuals, as a nation, as a world, from the devastating impact of coronavirus? It’s hard sometimes, looking to the future, not to feel a sense of doom and gloom, as forecasters prophesy economic recession such as we have not seen since the time of the Great Depression. Undoubtedly, times are going to be hard for many – perhaps harder than we have yet begun to contemplate. Yet we must not despair. Take heart, instead, from the resurrection of Jesus, which speaks so powerfully of turning the tables, of transforming defeat into victory, and apparent disaster into joyful new beginnings. The context is different, of course, but – as this reflective prayer from Touching the Seasons explores – the message is the same; what God has achieved in Christ means that in every aspect of life, no matter what we face or how testing things may be, we are able – through his love – to come bouncing back.
The bouncy ball
It bounced back again.
time after time,
the energy within it apparently inexhaustible,
unable to be contained –
and the harder it fell,
so the higher it climbed,
leaping up yet more spectacularly
than it had done before.
Speak, Lord, of your resurrection power
through which your Son rose again
and his followers bounced back from despair.
Grant, then, the assurance that
however low life may bring me
and however hard I may fall,
you will lift me up to new horizons,
both now and for all eternity.
Amen.