Blackpool Tower

With the exception of three years apiece in Yorkshire and Westmorland, I have been living in Lancashire most of my life. Despite this, I ascended the Eifel Tower twenty years ago but Blackpool Tower on this month. Although the latter is somewhat smaller than the former, the views were still highly impressive, with the Irish Sea on the one hand and the outline of Pendle Hill on the other (a sublime, majestic sight unknown to the Parisian). It was completed in 1894, some five years after its larger, French inspiration. 

In 1998, the ‘Walk of Faith’ was constructed, which is a transparent, glass floor upon the tower’s widest platform, above. Gazing down and through it, one sees the road and traffic immediately beneath, on to which one would fall if the said glass were to break.

While atop such a great landmark, one inevitably looks down and across, but seldom upward. Walking the Christian faith sometimes feels like taking a dangerous glass pathway; the fear of falling and breaking is frequent. Yet it also allows us to look up rather than down. We need not fear God’s righteous wrath which shall be revealed from heaven above, and neither shall we fear the grave below. We may think ourselves walking upon a weak and fragile surface, but a very strong hand keeps a hold of us, and its owner is disinclined to let us go. So be bold: look up rather down, and keep pressing on.