About six weeks ago the phrase ‘the new normal’ was being pulled out a lot, in reference to the enforced isolation that had come upon life as we knew it. Now, tomorrow, a return to ‘the old normal’ will take place in NSW schools. Life as we know it will be as it was, and yet, nothing like it was before.

Things will go back to being the same, but they will never be the same again.

I think of the countless times since I started teaching that students have said things like “How hot does have to get before school shuts down?”

I wonder how many times teachers will hear that line in the near future. Probably not too many. Even my Year 10s are keen to come back and are looking forward to picking their subjects for senior study.

Yes. Even Year 10 want to come back.

It’s a miracle. Or a revelation.

In their time away from school they’ve realised all the good things about it. A definite case of “you don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone”. What they thought they loathed, they realised actually had some good points about it.

And I guess life can be like that. What you think will be so very amazing, once you actually get it, doesn’t turn out to be so grand after all.

Sin is like that too.

It seems good, sweet in the mouth at first. But then it makes you sick in the stomach.

The Bible acknowledges the pleasures of sin, the allurement and the temptation. If it didn’t seem good, then no one would want to sin. And yet the way of sin leads to a path no one desires: The wages of sin is death

It reminds me of that old song, Lemon Tree:

 Lemon Tree, very pretty

And the lemon flower is sweet

But the fruit of that lemon

Is impossible to eat

I think the song was about a temptress who looked good, but underneath was bitter destruction. As for the temptress, so for sin. When we realise how terrible sin is, the allurement rubs off and the deathly reality is exposed. When we realise how good doing the right thing is, we realise we desire it more.

Fortunately, there is still hope for those who have turned their back on God, which is how The Bible categorises sin.

The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ.

We can turn around. We can change our lives and our perspectives, permanently, if we choose to change. God never forces.

I don’t have Year 10 until Thursday this week. Who knows what mindset about school they’ll have then? Four days in and we’ll see if they’re still as positive about school as they were last Friday 😊.

They may have decided they prefer the ‘sin’ of truancy instead. The choice is theirs…. the associated paperwork mine.

Yours in school face-to-face,

Alison