The Library of Parliament in Canada is the only part of the building that survived the great fire of 1916 – and that dates back to the Victorian Era. The library is a very striking room—a great open rotunda with galleries spanning the circumference. Rising in the centre of the library, in the place of absolute pre-eminence, is a towering statue of Queen Victoria. The point is that the Queen is at the centre of everything in Victorian Canada.

It is not too difficult to affirm the goodness of God when all is going well—when you gaze into the eyes of your future spouse or when you sit by a lake on a glorious summer day. But it is a bit more difficult to extol the goodness of God during the storms of life--when your spouse betrays you, when your boss fires you, or when your doctor calls with life-altering medical news.

During the pandemic, death has often been in the news.  Daily death totals have flashed across television screens.  Images of caskets and mass graves have appeared in newspapers.  In general, humans do not like to talk about death.

We live in a rapidly changing world. Technology is constantly advancing. Political leadership is continually changing hands. Cultural trends are always in flux. Even our physical bodies change.

If the experience of the coronavirus pandemic has been teaching us anything, it has been teaching us patience. So many things have been put on hold.  Plans for vacation or plans for visiting loved ones have been paused.  We wait for restrictions to be lifted as we long for society to return to “normal”.