As I reflect back on 2021 I can not help but be a little saddened. It’s a year all of us would have found difficult with the threat of Covid-19 hanging over us, like the proverbial bad penny. Life was not as it used to be. In many ways it is a distortion of what it should be, and yet this is life. Life to be lived and embraced, well maybe not so much of the embracing! As a hugger I’ve missed being able to hug my friends and those in need of comfort. Boris Johnson cry to ‘keep safe’ and ‘to keep the two meter rule’ has, in the main, been heeded. Then we could get closer as long as we were wearing a protective mask, but not too close! Then have been so many restriction and rule changes it’s been hard to keep up at times.
‘This far the Lord has helped us’ (1Samuel 7:12) but with all journeys there has been tears along the way, but there has also been joy. For me the birth of a grandson, and the news of another little one on the way. There’s been breaks away and exploring along the Devon and Cornwall coast. There’s been many a walk in the woods or across the fields, down tracks I’ve never ventured before. There has been time to sit, and to gaze, and to wonder. There has been more time to simply be, and more time to hang out with the Creator and hear his voice through the wings of a butterfly, or the bleating of a sheep, or the bubbling sound of streams and rivers, and the roar of the ocean.
In many ways my senses have been heightened and fine tuned. It has its advantages when it comes to listening to and sensing God. The disadvantage comes when I’m left on ‘high alert’ and the constantly covid risk assessments are left dancing in my head. We have all needed to keep grounded and I’m sure we are all that little bit more resilient for ploughing on through such difficult times.
As I look forward to the journey ahead and what 2022 has in store for me I wonder who will come on that journey with me? Where will we go? What will we find along the way? Will it all be an uphill struggle? Will there be fun along the way? The good thing about climbing hills and mountains is the view from the top. Psalm 24 asks, ‘Who may ascend the hill of the Lord?’ The invite is to all of us. There may be things that have to be worked out along the way, but that’s OK. Grace and mercy are offered in abundance. (Have a look at the Psalm if you wonder what I’m talking about.)
Will you come and join me in my journey through 2022? The territory is unknown, we have not been that way before, but ‘Thus far the Lord has helped us’ and I have no doubt he will continue to do so.
