Monday, May 4, 2020

Stranger on the Shore



This blog is in many ways a personal one as well as a means of keeping in contact with our Christian community and trying to offer some spiritual insights.
Yesterday I rejoiced that social media exists when I received a 30-second video of my youngest grandson. He is seven months old and had just begun to crawl a couple of weeks ago, then he pulled himself up on a chair soon afterwards. But the latest scene is yet greater.

Gran Canaria is part of Spain, and after many weeks of complete lockdown the government is now permitting people to go out for exercise and even – ta da – walk on the beach. So this was my little lad’s first time on the beach, and with arms held by his mother he took to paddling along the shoreline, with a joy and enthusiasm which fills me with happiness.

This also fills me with hope, for it tells me that restrictions really can – and will – be ended. Perhaps an announcement this week? Well, we are behind Spain on “the curve”. But it is a sign of hope, reminding me that freedom will return. And that is living proof.

Seeing our sons and grandchildren is also a sign of hope for the future. Not for nothing do the people in the Old Testament remember their forebears and have such care that the family line continues. It is a very basic human feeling and experience, and even if we do not have family it is important to feel that the next generations are coming along, dipping their toes into the edge of the shoreline of the future.

Heavenly Father, among life’s challenges, we thank you for all signs of hope for our selves and for the future of mankind. Help us to align ourselves to your loving purposes for our world, and to work against all that brings suffering and death. Help us all to hold together in families, communities and nations to find a newness of life in which we care for our planet and follow more closely your ways of love. In Jesus’ name. Amen




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