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Good Morning,

I am, I freely admit it, a very sentimental sort of cove.  Memories of people and events can get me going very easily.  But there are also certain sights, smells, and particularly sounds that can trigger a warm glow of nostalgia in me.  And one such sound is that of Big Ben – which was first heard on this day in 1859.

It is of course one of the best known sounds in the world – which is why there has been such widespread interest when it was announced recently that next year it would fall silent while the clock was overhauled.   But that sound always gets to me at a much more personal level.  Maybe it’s because I’m a child of the radio age when the chimes of Big Ben were so iconic, having become such a powerful national symbol during the Second World War.

But there’s another reason.  At one time in my civil service career I had an office from which you could actually hear Big Ben strike – in fact if you went to the right window – you could see the clock.  However frantic things got the sound of that bell striking would somehow put things into perspective.  That chime had kept going through much bigger problems than mine and there was real comfort in that.

And that’s very similar to the sense of comfort that I can get from singing familiar old hymns saying familiar prayers – even being in familiar and much loved church buildings.   All of these can trigger that same reassuring sense of continuity and connection with the past and future.   Of course there’s much more to Christianity than that – but for me and I know for a lot of others it’s a precious component of our faith.

And Big Ben’s birthday is a really good reminder of that.

Lord God, thank you that when our lives get rough, our relationship with You can give us a sense of perspective, reminding us that we are part of something bigger,  that long predates us and will long outlive us.  Amen