The house seemed strangely empty. My daughter, Lizzie, had gone to Manchester for a couple of weeks. I had expected to enjoy the peace and quiet – just me and the dogs – but I missed her and the baby, and I felt lost and unsettled. As I cooked my solitary omelette, I noticed two paper sheep, coloured in by my granddaughter at a family service. They’d been hearing the Bible stories of ‘The Lost Sheep’ and ‘The Prodigal Son’. I noticed them, possibly, because, that morning I had only just read the last verse of that great long Psalm 119. It said, ‘ I have wandered away like a lost sheep – come and find me, for I have not forgotten your commands.’
I thought about my own five children, grown up now, all baptised and confirmed, but only one is still ‘in the fold’; two of them would say they believe and occasionally pray, and of the other two, one can’t be bothered, and the other, who used to be the most ‘spiritually aware’ of all my children, seems to have turned his back on God altogether. Nevertheless, I see in him such an aching longing for meaning, for purpose, and understanding. He’s searching for answers in science, physics, and philosophy. He pushes himself to extremes, whether at work, or at leisure –skiing, surfing, the occasional parachute jump or flying lesson, scuba diving;
He called in here for a quick coffee at the weekend. ‘How are you? What’s new?’ I asked. Well, the latest is that he’s planning a trip to the Philippines, diving on ship wrecks, and in an underground lake in a cave system. They will enter via a borehole, crawl through narrow, wet tunnels, and dive into the lake. The next cave system can only be reached by a narrow, underwater entrance, which emerges into a great cavernous, cathedral – like space. To get out, they must turn around and go back the way they came.
At the risk of sounding a bit ‘kill-joy,’ I said ‘But WHY? What on earth makes you want to do such dangerous things?’ “I suppose it’s like pushing the boundaries of my existence,” he replied. “It’s as though I’m on the edge of something amazing, but it’s never quite amazing enough!”
How I long for him to find Jesus – or should I say, for Jesus to find HIM, and all those others like him? My prayer is; ‘Don’t wait too long, Lord – it’s a dangerous world out there; look at Amy Winehouse, and all those young people in that Norwegian Youth Camp! Please keep our children in the palm of your hand. Guide their steps; send angels to protect them, even though they don’t yet acknowledge you. Turn them around to look into your face; awaken them to your infinite love. Amen.
I love the way scripture puts into words exactly what’s in your heart. How about this? ‘O Lord, you have searched me and you know me…. You are familiar with all my ways… Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn – if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.’ (Excerpts from Psalm 139 vs 1 – 10
If we don’t teach our families about God, who on earth will? “We will not hide these truths from our children, but will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord…his laws and decrees, so they might know them – even the children not yet born, that they, in turn, might teach their children, so each generation can set its’ hope anew on God.”
(Excerpts from Psalm 78 v 4 – 7)
