Because

2020 became the year where the words ‘because Covid’ explained everything from chaos and fear to widespread shutdowns, illness, overtime or lack of employment, distance learning and the inability to get a decent haircut. In the course of a few weeks, the entire world changed. The structure and fabric of society warped in new ways, and humans did not approve. Because…Covid.

It’s a phrase that explains the change, separating the normal and expected from everything that followed over the course of the last 12 months.

It occurs to me that we can take a lesson from this. After all, as Christians, we’ve encounter another entirely life-changing event, one that can really be summed up by a similar phrase ‘because Jesus.’ And like the previous phrase, we should be able to note radical change in our lives, our homes, the way we do things, how we work, and even what we spend our money on…because Jesus.

This idea isn’t really a new one, but in the current context, I found it particularly poignant when it reached me.

Because Jesus came to earth as man and God, because he is light and love and life, because Jesus loves me, because he died to annihilate death, because he is alive and I’m forgiven…Because Jesus.

Imagine someone saying: This guy at work was so rude, but I was kind to him anyway…you know, because Jesus.

Or: I don’t really want to get involved with the underprivileged, it will take up so much time, but, because Jesus, I think I’ll do it anyway.

Just a thought, but if we started thinking in this way instead of underling everything that we’ve lost or been separated from in the last year, we just might find that we haven’t lost what’s important after all.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. 

- Ephesians 4:32