This expedition may tell us about the origins of life on Earth, as well as reassuring us that scientists are quite likely to be able to deflect a direct hit from a comet, should one happen to be coming towards us in the future. This, I feel, can only be a good thing, and I sleep easier in my bed for the knowledge. I mean, just look at what they did. Usama Hasan of The Guardian said, ‘The journey has taken just over ten years, covering a distance of four billion miles – that’s a million times the distance to the centre of the Earth, or the equivalent of 8,000 return trips to the moon.’ Mind-blowing!
I was privileged to visit a church recently and to sit at the mealtime next to eight year-old Jack. We very quickly fell into conversation about I’m A Celebrity. This was a bit of a challenge for me as we don’t actually have a TV, but I know the lingo and threw in references to ‘bush tucker’ and ‘bikinis’ every now and then while Jack chuckled his way through the more unsuitable moments from the series and pontificated on the different characters involved. On one level, it was a totally meaningless, trivial, pointless conversation. But on another, it was a life-enhancing, cockles-of-the-heart-warming, cheering and fun 20 minutes, from which I was called reluctantly away to chat to the churchwarden.
Those 20 minutes may not have been a ten-year journey, but it mattered. It was an opportunity to take the first tentative steps towards relating to another human being, someone totally different from myself in age, gender, background and interests. It was about the church providing a space and a chance for me in my adult-only world to have the privilege of landing for 20 minutes on the alien landscape of a child’s world and to marvel at what it contains, to try to understand it a little, and to contrast my own ways of doing and being with those of someone who is effectively from a different planet. And for Jack to do the same to me.
In his poem ‘To Marguerite’, Matthew Arnold wrote:
‘Yes! In the sea of life enisled, With echoing straits between us thrown, Dotting the shoreless, watery wild, We mortal millions live alone.’
The Church provides the space and chance for me in my adult-only world to land on the alien landscape of a child’s world
Sometimes it can feel as though we humans live entirely alone, each separate planets orbiting around. One glorious thing the Church can and does do is to make a safe space to land communication probes on the alien landscapes of other people’s planets (or comets), helping us to connect with one another, and to discover who they, and we, really are in the galaxy of Christ’s people. We need to value the moments we have to make friends with people of any age.
We need to keep working with the dedication of astrophysicists to turn more churches into places where real friendships and connections are being made. We need to adventure into outer space beyond our comfort zones to spend time alongside children, teens and adults. Maybe we will only manage a conversation about junk TV in the first instance, but that’s only the start of our adventure ‘to infinity and beyond’ with them. As we dare to cross the echoing straits between us, in a tiny way, we mirror our amazing Christ who crossed every limit in order to show us God’s limitless love. All of that, without the use of Newtonian physics.
It is with great sadness that we wave a fond farewell to Lucy as our back page columnist! She has been with us from the beginning here at Premier Childrenswork, but leaves to focus on Messy Church as it continues to grow and develop. We have so valued your wisdom and insights Lucy - thank you.
