When I look out the lounge window I see in the distance the glistering white bridge linking Great Bernera with mainland Lewis.

A clear and visible symbol of two communities linked together physically, but as we know the connection is more than the physical. Involving the communal, the cultural and the spiritual. My grandfather, then a Councillor, spoke of his great pride at being present at the opening of the Bernera Bridge all those years ago. A structure that continues to effectively serve both communities to this day.

As islanders, our ties with one another is deep and has a tangible facet, arguably not found in many urban settings. How often we saw this proved as we walked through the Eastgate Centre in Inverness and spied another islander. It made us happy, and immediately we would acknowledge and speak to our fellow islander warmly in this different setting. Even to those who we had never spoken to at home.

Instead of destroying the characteristic, warmth, care and concern of the community of Bernera Covid 19 has actually been an accelerant and a platform to express these virtues, especially to those categorised as belonging to the ‘vulnerable grouping’, and to those who live alone. An important and valuable component of our community.

Christ, commended such an expression of selfless love and concern when he taught, ‘ inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me’, Matt 25:40.

Jesus knows what is to be lonely. He knows what it is to be cut off. To experience the ultimate, social isolation at the Cross and He encourages you and I to ‘cast.. all your care upon Him, for He cares for you [and I]’, 1 Ptr 5:7

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