Are we nearly there yet?

Those long journeys in the back of the car surrounded by books and quizzes and things to spot, the anticipation that one day we could get out of this metal box. The questions begin. 

The delayed train stops in the middle of nowhere, you look out the window and the driver armed with a torch and his bag that should have already been by his front door at home walks to the other end of the train to turn round because the way ahead is blocked. The frustration sets in. 

The top of the mountain seems clear ahead but on arrival at the top the next climb ahead shows the top is much further away and the climb continues. The knees hurt, the legs ache, the end moves beyond the line of sight. 

The empty space sits waiting to be filled with the sound of singing and family, the smells of eating and the beauty of Christ centred community. The regulations and barriers are erected and all that was asked for is shifted to another virtual place. 

At the beginning of lockdown the whole Christian world was quoting Isaiah 26:20. I wrote a blog on it before it became THE verse. The expectation of the numbers pointed to a date 26 days away or 26th April or 2nd June or some sort of mathematical operation to the date of today that would mean lockdown would magically disappear. 

But it doesn’t work like that. The words ‘are we nearly there yet?’ don’t get us any closer. Manipulating the numbers doesn’t bring the magic miracles the manipulator would like. Just because we’re told we can meet for worship it doesn’t mean we can worship in a way that we actually want to......More than 100 days later that instruction from Isaiah 26:20 is still more than relevant - look at the second half of the verse. 

“Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by”

The danger isn’t over, in fact it’s still very much here. It doesn’t say hide until the pubs open or hide until you feel like it, it says hide until it’s gone...... take it slowly, don’t rush, pause for a while. The open door will come.....

In the meanwhile, it's time to discover and to use our imagination, look ahead, look beyond, because there are opportunities ahead we have never dreamed of before.