Uneven Steps

 

A recent thought for the day, in a book called Celtic Daily Prayer, included the last two lines of the following poem. 

Pippa's Song by Robert Browning. Here it is, beautiful and innocent.

The year's at the spring, 
And day's at the morn; 
Morning's at seven; 
The hill-side's dew-pearl'd; 
The lark's on the wing; 
The snail's on the thorn; 
God's in His heaven,
All's right with the world!

The comment following this quotation was meant to be a challenge. It reads,

'Our experience tells us that, whether God's is in His heaven or not, all is certainly not right with the world. Perhaps He is not there after all - that is how it seems.'

Have the distressing things in the world convinced a lot of people that God isn’t really there, or if He is, it’s clear He isn’t in the least bit bothered about us?

Yet here we are, Christians with faiths ranging from weak to strong, all believing that God exists and that He cares deeply for every single person in the world.

Today I sat on a crowded grassy slope opposite the entrance of a vast city hospital, eating a picnic lunch with my daughter who works there. I watched as people went in and out of the building, some limping, some strong and healthy, some on crutches, and some in wheelchairs. Buses and taxis pulled up carrying more people. I thought that each one of these people has their own individual perspective on life, and if you asked them, they would no doubt have many interesting stories to tell, about their lives, their childhood, their troubles.

I thought too, that many of these people probably never give God a thought, and what a responsibility we have in nudging them towards finding God for themselves. In our writing, as well as in our daily lives, we have quiet opportunities to influence the thinking of someone, somewhere, a person who has perhaps dismissed the idea of God as old-fashioned or irrelevant. We may point someone in God’s direction without ever knowing we’ve done it. We may help them to take their first uneven steps on the path of understanding. Parish magazine or world best-seller, or a poem for Auntie Mabel on her birthday, writers for God can change the world, word by word by Word. 

Veronica Bright has won over forty prizes for her short stories, now published in three collections. She writes reviews for Transforming Ministry. She is the ACW short story adviser, and runs the ACW Writing for Children group, whose members meet up on Zoom. For more details look on the Writing for Children Facebook page.

http://wwwveronicabright.co.uk