The nation will honour Capt Tom on his 100th birthday this evening by banging saucepans, blowing trumpets and clapping. Not only has he raised over £29m for the NHS by walking laps of his garden, he has topped the charts with Michael Ball with a cover of You’ll Never Walk Alone which sold 82,000 copies, for the NHS Charities Together fund. And The Royal Mail will stamp all letters with a special message this week for him.
In an interview Capt Tom, rightly pointed out that things will get better. In the meantime we are in this together, pulling together and showing great community spirit. People are helping each other, encouraging those who continue to work in the NHS by the Thursday clapping.
We have a long history of helping others, of loving our neighbour as the bible would put it. Jesus made it clear that if you want to follow him, then serving others is part of it. Elsewhere the bible reminds us that faith without works is dead. Sidney Carter’s hymn When I needed a neighbour were you there? is based on Jesus’ parable indicating the judgement on our behaviour. Whatever we do for the least of his brothers we do for him. He also taught in the parable of The Good Samaritan that anyone in need is our neighbour, even our enemies.
Let us honour Capt Tom, following his example of self giving service to others and doing so with hope in our hearts.
We all need hope and even more so in these frightening days. I think that’s why putting rainbows in our windows is a wonderful idea. The rainbow is a symbol of hope and of sunshine after the rain. For Christians that hope is in God, through Jesus. He walks with us through difficult and dark days, helping us to help each other. He walks with us as we walk with each other because his spirit is within us; we are his hands, feet, eyes and mouth. And we are never alone once we have invited him to walk with us, day by day.
Elizabeth Jones' Diary 