Stories of Nightingale during the Crimean War
Walking among wounded soldiers on her night rounds.
Give us this romanticised image of'
'The lady of the lamp'.
And now in 2020, this, the 'Year of the Nurse and the Midwife',
Marking her 200th anniversary
I ask myself, what better image is there than this?
Than of us too being people of the lamp?

We might be in peacetime
But we hear the pandemic's piercing war cry echoing across the world
Breaking into our nation
Advancing on our hospitals God,
would we be carriers of your light in this darkness?

Because your everlasting light in us is like no other
Light of the world,
No shadows are cast in you
You cut through
Permeate everything
Nothing can stand up against.

Let there be light Oh God!
Let there be hope.
Let there be faith and love.
Let there be healing and let there be an end to this virus.

And people might praise our efforts as nurses and doctors
The media might applaud the sacrifices we make.
But I'm reminded by you that it's not my light this nation needs
The light my own strength could generate
Would too quickly be snuffed out
Would too quickly be burnt out.
You, Lord, are my lamp [1]
It's your light I carry
Shine through me I pray

As the old hymn says,
'O light, all lights excelling
Make my heart Thy dwelling;
O Joy, all grief dispelling,
To my poor heart come in' [2]

I pray, Amen

Bex Lawton is a paediatric nurse in Oxford