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17/07/2017
A reading and a reflection to start the day with the Rev'd Dr Craig Gardiner, a tutor at South Wales Baptist College.
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Script:
Good morning. Some weeks ago our family headed off on holiday, but unprecedented traffic jams delayed our progress to the airport. Our final dash along the concourse wasn鈥檛 fast enough and we were just minutes late for checking-in our bags. No amount of children鈥檚 tears could alter the reality that if we chose to leave that day we鈥檇 go only with hand-luggage. No-one wanted a week away without spare clothes, but with seconds ticking away, we decided three of us would go. I鈥檇 have to find another way for me and all the luggage.聽
Well I booked a new flight travelling the next day, but the following morning things went from bad to worse. A massive IT failure for the airline left me stuck for hours in limbo, not knowing when I鈥檇 ever get to join my family. Eventually the gate was called and I was on my way.
I know, of course that this slight inconvenience is as nothing, when families round the world are daily torn apart by truly tragic circumstances, where their involuntary separation may not so easily, or even ever, be overcome. But my brief separation made me reconsider how our longing to connect with other people is a fundamental part of being human. Indeed the bible says we are created in the image of a social God, so we鈥檙e fashioned for relationship, and our heart will inevitably ache when it鈥檚 denied its full expression.
But Christian faith has always pointed us beyond ourselves and other people. St Augustine said, our hearts are restless until we find our rest in God, meaning that if we are created in God鈥檚 image, then our spirit will always have a longing to connect with a God who still turns up in the most unexpected times and places.
God who can be found in every circumstance
Help us to be attentive to our deepest heart鈥檚 desire
And discover you afresh
Even in the unwelcome interruptions of today聽
Amen
Broadcast
- Mon 17 Jul 2017 05:43成人快手 Radio 4