The Love of God

One of my favourite television shows is Call the Midwife. The show, set from the early 1950s onwards has reached the dizzy heights of 1966 and the World Cup victory. The show also examines some rather gritty issues too, it has looked extensively at abortion, mental health provision, homosexuality, domestic abuse, teenage pregnancy and mixed race births.

I have particularly enjoyed this series as it explored Sister Monica Joan (the oldest nun and the provider of pithy comments and witty remarks) ‘dark night of the soul’. It has questioned her devotion to the Lord and her belief in God.

Now, as a member of a religious order, Sister Monica Joan’s faith and life were so entwined that to leave if you were to question your faith you were questioning your life work and its devotion and purpose. For her to admit to herself first, and then to others that she was questioning her faith would potentially spell the end of her time at Nonatus and indeed the life she has led for any number of years.

Put bluntly, she would lose everything if she admits she has lost her faith.

But I haven’t hopped on here to talk about Sister Monica Joan’s crisis of faith, but instead to talk about her resolution to the crisis.

At the end of the episode the religious sister says the following words about the love of her Lord and what it means to her, in essence what her faith comes down to:

“It was where I began, what fed me, and what feeds me now, it is complete, and so within His love am I.”

For the fictional Sister Monica Joan, her faith began, was sustained and was finalised by the love of her creator redeemer and companion.

And that feeling of completeness within the love of God is something I would whole heartedly agree with in my own walk, and I am sure many of you can identify with too.

Whilst we may all come to know the Lord through different routes, something that all christians share, no matter what denominations you come from, is the overwhelming powerful knowledge of being loved by God.

So Sister Monica Joan, a nearing 100 year old Nun in a fictional drama, reminded those in a divided nation who watch this show that as Christians we are all united in the love we receive from our Heavenly Father.

The love of God is greater far

Than tongue or pen can ever tell

It goes beyond the highest star

And reaches to the lowest hell

The guilty pair, bowed down with care

God gave His Son to win

His erring child He reconciled

And pardoned from his sin

As an aside Call the Midwife was originally based on the Memoirs of Jennifer Worth Call the Midwife, Shadows of the Workhouse, Farewell to the East end, and In the Midst of Life. I have read all of these and found certain passages and stories in Farewell to the East end were collected by Worth from other midwife teams working in the Poplar and Stepney area including The Salvation Army midwifes. Whilst all the stories have now been covered which featured TSA, I have found it very interesting seeing a history of different Christian social service movements dramatised for primetime TV.