Life can seem very complicated. There are so many things to understand and cope with that we long for simple pleasures and quiet places. How simple it must be as a sheep (see picture). But so we really mean that?
I had a birthday recently; I am not sure about you, but I have one a year. Several people asked me what I had been given, and that made me realise that I really did not care. It is not that I am an ungrateful person but rather that over the few days either side of it, we gained and grandchild (a son for our son and daughter-in-law) and then the good news came that our daughter and son-in-law have (subject to the vagaries of the system) had an offer accepted on a house. At a personal level, who needs more contentment than is brought by good new and stability?
Today, one of the readings set is Psalm 117. That Psalm is the shortest chapter in the entire Bible. It calls all people to praise God for one thing: his love towards us. The only embellishment to the call to praise is the additional statement that God’s love and faithfulness last forever.
Last weekend the Church celebrated Easter, the Resurrection. That momentous outworking of God’s love can be clouded by disagreements over levels of belief in a bodily resurrection. Much of what we are called on to believe is mind stretching. I may be perverse, but for me it is easier to accept the unbelievable miracle of a bodily resurrection than that God loves me in my human state of worry and fallibility. Am I alone?
A prayer
Lord, help me to stop complicating the message of your love for me, but praise you for your faithfulness. Thank you for taking me as I am and working with me on the rest. Thank you for the visible evidence of good things and help me know in my heart the truth that ‘Jesus lives’, without worrying how that can be.
Lord Jesus, be with me always; the gift of the Father’s Son to many Sons and Daughters. Amen.