A question that philosophers like to ask goes like this: if there’s nobody there to witness it, when a tree falls in a forest, does it make a noise?
But I’m more interested to know if anybody cares.
All of which leads me to tell you something that you almost certainly won’t know – that Joanna Mellow died in 1625. And, according to the engraved slate slab in Talland Church, so too did the baby boy she gave birth to.
Which might leave you wondering: ‘So what? Why should that concern us today?’
Well that’s precisely the question I found myself asking as I continued my walk along the Cornish coast path. Does it matter that 400 years ago a young woman died in childbirth? After all countless waves have washed over the nearby beach over the ensuing centuries and, despite how deep the grief that must have been felt by those who loved her at the time, I very much doubt if anyone alive today gives her a second thought.
Even so, I am inclined to think that her death should remain a matter of concern. Because if it doesn’t, then it means that ultimately our lives don’t matter either – that at best they have only a passing significance – for the very simple reason that in 400 years’ time it’s unlikely that anybody will remember any of us.
Of course there may be some who say that at the time, to those intimately associated with Joanna and her son, her death did matter – but now, after all this time, it no longer does. But if that is true then wouldn’t it mean that something only matters if there is someone to whom it matters – if there is someone who continues to remember.
And what would that mean for those whom the world has forgotten?
But here’s the thing. There is someone who cares about everything. Someone who cares for everyone – and especially those for whom nobody else spares a thought – no matter how alone or seemingly forgotten they may feel.
Because God not only cares, he remembers.
He remembers not only those who know him as Father – those who, confident that he cares for them, cast all their anxieties on him (1 Peter 5:7) – but also those who continue to reject him, those he would, if they were willing, gladly gather to himself, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings (Matthew 23:37).
So then, I think Joanna Mellow’s death does matter – every bit as much as our lives do.
To God.
Who not only hears the tree that falls unseen – but remembers and cares for those the world forgets.
Some musings 