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Good Morning. When, 14 years ago today, workers in New York’s financial sector made their way through the devastation of 9/11to go back to work, the city was still a mess and the air barely breathable. But those New Yorkers – many of whom were very lucky to be alive, felt deeply that in the face of utterly abnormal events the best response was to defiantly get back to the utterly normal – and go to work. 

Many of the men and women making their way down Wall Street that day mentioned the example of Londoners in the Blitz of World War two – For whom ‘Business as Usual’ notices in smashed shop windows became a huge boost to morale and a continuing symbol of defiance.

Our daily routine is sometimes very important indeed.  The ordinary humdrum business of our lives can get tedious, but it can also be very precious. 

I think of my own Father as he became increasingly restricted by illness.  If you’d asked him I’m pretty sure he’d have told you that the height of his ambition was to be able to get up and go to work every day and play 18 holes of not very brilliant golf on a Saturday.  Normal was what he missed most. For many of us, while we may fantasise about a life less ordinary, the stability in the daily routine gives us security we should never undervalue. 

The Bible is full of stories that stress how important it is that societies and individuals be able to enjoy peaceful, reasonable comfortable and quiet lives.  So, today is a chance for us to celebrate the power of normality and the preciousness of the familiar.  But also to acknowledge that for too many people in the world that kind of life is just a distant dream.

Lord, whatever may happen to us today we thank You that, in You, we always have a safe and secure place where we are loved.     Amen.