With God In A Strange LandExemplo

Day 2 Far from home

We all have to face it. Sometimes we just get stuck - in a place, a moment, or a situation where we clearly did not intend to be. One thing leads to another and before we know where we are, normal life seems so very far away.

I once heard a refugee describe how the border with his home country ran just alongside his refugee camp. He could stand at the edge of the camp and gaze across at an old familiar tree in the home country - but he could not go there. The border was both invisible and impervious.

I am finding that the landscape of grief has just such a border. I can gaze across it at old familiar things. I can watch normal life unfold before my eyes, and I can stand and have a conversation with those across the border as if nothing separated us. That said - it is impossible to cross for now. When it comes down to it, they live there and I live here and nothing can be done about that. I make occasional forays into their land, and they are precious. It turns out, though, that I take the border with me. I am like a cartoon character racing to outrun an elastic band - legs whirring and arms pumping, but the snap of the elastic must bring me back as surely as night follows day.

The refugee made a new life for himself across the border. He would still gaze from time to time at the old, familiar tree - but he found others in his new home. Like the old one, they provided shade and the kind of mental landmark which makes any new place a little less strange. Today, I shall go looking for trees. (From Postcards from the Land of Grief Copyright © 2019 by Richard Littledale.)

In our first reading, Jonah cries out to God from the most desolate place he had ever been. Strangely, right down there in the belly of the whale, a Psalm is born. In the most testing circumstances imaginable, Jonah still finds that faith has a voice.

In our second reading, John is far from home, imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos, and kept away from all his friends in the church. Right there, in that desolate place, Jesus appears to him in a spectacular vision of light and power. God has a habit of finding us in the tightest spots. Today, take a long, hard look at the circumstances around you, even if you find them really testing. Ask that God would make himself known to you right where you are.