We’ve been in lockdown now for over five months.

Now schools are reopening, and with them a return to a more normal rhythm of life for many.

But what have we learned? The polls tell us that the majority of us don’t want things to return to exactly how they were before Covid. We’ve been offered an opportunity to reflect. To build back better.

Pre-Covid, we ran round and round in circles, often too busy to think.

We’d bought the lie of consumerism that life is about possessions and productivity.

Lockdown hit the pause button for a while. Reminded us of what really matters.

Helped us to remember the value of relationship, family, justice, equality.

To question our addiction to accumulation and accomplishment.

The endless desire for more that hollows out our soul and eats us alive.

Many of us have come face to face with death as loved ones have passed away.

In the face of our mortality, what are the things that matter most?

We all know that relationships come first. People over things.

And perhaps the most important relationship at all is our relationship with God: the one who made us in the first place.

God isn’t far off or absent at times like this. He wants to be known. He loves us so much that he became a human being in Jesus of Nazareth, to show us a better way to live. And to all who choose to receive it, he offers grace, peace, forgiveness… hope. He offers a relationship with him that enables a better way of living.

As the pace of life picks up, let’s learn the lessons of lockdown and build back better. Let’s put people first. Let’s remember what matters most.