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Jesus is a spiritual big brother for every Christian. Having suffered in every way like us He is able to sympathetically come alongside us with grace to help (Hebrews 2:17, 4:15-16). It is impossible to put the pain into words when you are prevented from attending a family funeral because of the quarantine regulations! What a terribly cruel and unexpected dimension of this viral pandemic. Does Jesus know how you feel? Yes, He does. Remember when Lazarus died, he had been in the tomb several days before Jesus arrived. Jesus knew God’s plan of redemption involved raising people from the dead. That gives us the hope that one day we will meet those who die in the Lord. But that hope does not take away our grief and it did not take away Jesus’ grief. The Bible simply says “Jesus wept ”. How much intensity and depth of feeling lies beneath that word? Where others might only imagine what you are going through Jesus knows exactly how you feel.

The 14th April, 2020, issue of 'Time' magazine carried an article by the spiritual head of the Tibetan Buddhist religion entitled "' Prayer Is Not Enough.' The Dalai Lama on Why We Need to Fight Coronavirus With Compassion ". Whilst I do not share the Dalai Lama's Buddhist beliefs, he often displays a down-to-earth practical wisdom which many people find attractive and helpful. That is again evident in this article and so, for the next couple of posts, I want to stand very definitely as a Christian  whilst taking the Dalai Lama as my conversation partner. The opening paragraph in his article is fascinating on a number of levels: "S ometimes friends ask me to help with some problem in the world, using some “magical powers.” I always tell them that the Dalai Lama has no magical powers. If I did, I would not feel pain in my legs or a sore throat. We are all the same as human beings , and we experience the same fears, the same hopes, t