Dear One and All,
The bags are packed, the house made tidy and we are set to travel abroad. Travel, according to Thenadier in Les Miserables ‘ is a curse’. I am not sure I agree, but if our bags go missing, if our passports are lost or the flight is delayed then I might tend to agree. But we travel hopefully.
That’s it in a nutshell isn’t it. We travel hopefully. Our lives are a journey from birth to death and beyond. In that journey we ‘never cease from exploration’ as T.S. Eliot might say. In that exploration of life w meet fellow travellers along the way. Some will fill our hearts with gladness, others may be not so much. In our journey we meet people we fall in love with, people we care for, people we’d rather forget. Life brings such a rich collection of folk and experiences.
Recently our dog, Mr Wesley, died. Dogs can break your heart, they become part of the family, a joy. When they go, there’s a dog-shaped hole in the home and in one’s life. But our pets and supremely for me, the dogs we have had over the years, bring a sense of love and fun, which even in the grief of separation, is always worth the having. To shy away from the experience of love, because of the fear of loss or hurt, is not to experience life and life in all its fulness.
God shows us love. Love in Christ and love in the work of the Holy Spirit. God, as Psalm 136 tells us, knows us utterly. There is no separation from God, because in Christ that love endures and is a constant melody playing in the background of our lives. As we journey in life, so if we will permit it, we travel in the mystery that is God, but a mystery grounded in Christ. Love given. Love shared and love given and shared still further.
As we approach the season of Lent, let us walk hopefully together. As we as Christians face the challenges which this world throws at us, let us do so with hope. In all things let us find hope and acknowledge that our God is the God of all hopefulness.
Every blessing,
Simon