Beauty surrounds us, but we usually need to be walking in a garden to know it - Rumi
The other day I spoke of the difficulty I had trying to convince an automated telephone system that I was who I said I was. These advanced communication systems are great, fast and efficient. For example, I can write an email click on “Send” and the recipient can read it almost as soon as I have sent it, anywhere in the world. The problem is that people don’t always do that. Friends have said to me “Oh, I don’t read emails, I get so many of them” or “Send me a text to let me know you have emailed me”! My grandson tells me that emails are old fashioned anyway since everyone uses social media sites to communicate nowadays. Sadly, I am old enough to remember a time when communication was done by letter or telephone if the household had one, though not everyone did in those days. To receive a letter, especially a handwritten one was somehow special – my mother in law used to spend hours writing letters to friends and relatives and took great pleasure in receiving a reply. Of course, everyone dreaded the plain brown envelopes containing bills or a tax demand. The telegram, the nearest we had to instant communication, was often feared as it would almost inevitably bring bad news. In fact, it was not uncommon for a family to send one of the children to fetch the doctor from his home if one was required urgently.
Nowadays we check our texts and tweets as well as Facebook every day (probably several times a day). Indeed, if you look at the youngsters in the street they seem to be constantly glued to their mobile devices – wired in, it seems. Some of us even check our emails and voicemails too. Fortunately living in town the wi-fi connection is usually satisfactory here, but isn’t it good to know that we do not need to worry about getting an internet connection to God. We simply do not need one for He is here with us at all times! That is the meaning of His Name Emmanuel God with us. All we need to do is to speak to Him. He is there for us. He will listen and answer us at any time of the day or night and in any circumstance. Perhaps you remember the line in the old hymn “Take it to the Lord in prayer”. Yes you can and you must. So let us do just that today. Find a quiet time, a quiet place and check in with God.
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AuthorI am an Authorised Local Preacher in an Anglo Catholic parish church, in the Diocese of Essex UK Archives
February 2022
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