It was a surreal sight when, back in April 2020, a cruise liner first anchored down in Weymouth Bay. Now, almost a year on, there are still several of these huge ships bobbing around in the bay. These waiting vessels have become a helpful metaphor.
These powerful ships suddenly needed protection – and the relatively calm waters of the Bay have provided this. In a time of multiple change and loss people have needed multiple levels of protection. Key workers in all walks of life have provided this and schools have provided places of calm, reassurance and safety.
Yet these great ships were not made to just float around the bay….. they were made for adventure!
We are lovingly and purposefully created -each with a vocation to be joyfully discerned. Our role is to protect and also to encourage people to grasp that they are, “fearfully and wonderfully made,” and to have the confidence to live life with a sense of wonder, purpose and adventure.
The day will come when the cruise ships leave. The engines will whir into life, the anchors will be hoisted up– and they’ll set sail – back into the purposes for which they were created.
I hope that our schools, churches, communities and children may experience something of this new life too. That as opportunities open up we will live life well with a renewed sense of purpose, adventure and confidence.