17/07/2017

Good morning. Some weeks ago our family headed off on holiday, but unprecedented traffic jams delayed our progress to the airport. Our final dash along the concourse wasn’t fast enough and we were just minutes late for checking-in our bags. No amount of children’s tears could alter the reality that if we chose to leave that day we’d go only with hand-luggage. No-one wanted a week away without spare clothes, but with seconds ticking away, we decided three of us would go. I’d have to find another way for me and all the luggage.

Well I booked a new flight travelling the next day, but the following morning things went from bad to worse. A massive IT failure for the airline left me stuck for hours in limbo, not knowing when I’d ever get to join my family. Eventually the gate was called and I was on my way.

I know, of course that this slight inconvenience is as nothing, when families round the world are daily torn apart by truly tragic circumstances, where their involuntary separation may not so easily, or even ever, be overcome. But my brief separation made me reconsider how our longing to connect with other people is a fundamental part of being human. Indeed the bible says we are created in the image of a social God, so we’re fashioned for relationship, and our heart will inevitably ache when it’s denied its full expression.

But Christian faith has always pointed us beyond ourselves and other people. St Augustine said, our hearts are restless until we find our rest in God, meaning that if we are created in God’s image, then our spirit will always have a longing to connect with a God who still turns up in the most unexpected times and places.

God who can be found in every circumstance
Help us to be attentive to our deepest heart’s desire
And discover you afresh
Even in the unwelcome interruptions of today
Amen