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Good morning. Six months. Six months since flames engulphed Grenfell Tower and seventy-one people lost their lives, and many more lost their homes. In a few hours, a service at St Paul’s Cathedral will gather the communities affected by the tragedy for a memorial. Some will inevitably say, is it six months already? For others, these months will have felt as if time stood still. What do we do when we gather? We remember, we mourn. We remind ourselves that when tragedy strikes, we often see bravery and kindness in response, as in Grenfell. In the emergency services, in neighbours, in people of all faiths and none working together to give shelter and practical help.

But six months on, there is little bravery or glory in response. Instead, we carry on the painful task of walking alongside those who grieve. It is all too easy for the world to race ahead; we may pause to remember shortly, before being on our way. And those who grieve watch us passing by, as they try to relearn to live.

The real test of our humanity is not so much how we react at times of crisis, when tragedy and heroism walk side-by-side. It is rather how communities gather together afterwards. How they go back to the business of living without forgetting those who are not ready to move on. Do we still listen when a friend wants to tell the story of their loss for the thousandth time? Do we remember those facing their Christmas without the ones they loved and lost? Do we keep pressing for justice and answers?

The stories of faith in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures tell us again and again that human beings struggle most to live faithfully in the routine, unremarkable times of life. That the difficult task of being human is about paying attention to what the prophet Zechariah calls, ‘the day of small things’.
The small gestures that make all the difference. Daily kindness and attention to others, rather than greatness or achievements. The God of the New Testament is in many ways the god of small things, to borrow a phrase from Arundhati Roy: a God who comes and lives on earth, born in unremarkable surroundings, and who lives thirty unremarkable years, working, laughing, loving, being a son, brother and friend. These thirty years tell us a great deal: they tell us that human lives matter, in their daily routine. They call us to cherish the days of small things.

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