In the new year, our new question likely is – have you had a covid case at a church service yet?

At my church, it was the midnight Christmas Eve service

As case numbers rocket upwards in NSW but also in the other east coast states it will only be a matter of time before each and every church gathering experiences the same.

Ironically for me, I also got a Covid warning for getting my Covid booster at the local pharmacy.

2022 has had an uncertain start. No one knows what will happen.

In 1939, another year of uncertainty, King George VI’s Christmas message used an up-until-then obscure poem, God Knows,  to prepare his people for the unknown.

The words of comfort came from Minnie Louise Haskins, a Wesleyan Methodist missionary in Madras who write poetry to raise funds for the Zenana mission to women. Sent home with poor health she became a much-loved academic at the London School of Economics.

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:

‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’

And he replied:

‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’

So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.