Light for Here and Now

On Thursday, I was walking to the Bible Study. We were examining some of the Hebrew prophecies about Messiah’s coming, the fulfilment of which we celebrated two days later. I had had a particularly sedentary week, sitting by the fire like a pampered tabby, reading and writing. A two-hour night walk would burn off some of the accrued blubber and clear my head. It wasn’t some pious puritan I was listening to as I traversed the narrow lanes, but Alan Partridge. Lurking foxes and loitering owls would have had their nocturnal doings interrupted by regular guffaws coming through the hedge.

As I approached Martin Top Lane via Middop, I toppled over. Like an old drunk after last orders or a heavily made-up woman in silly heels, I lost balance and hit the ground. After a few seconds I managed to get up, removing the gravel that was pressed into the skin. The blood was minimal and the awkward limp righted itself after a few dozen yards. Alan Partridge prattled away as though nothing happened, while I wondered why I had fallen. Was I losing my balance? Could I no longer go out without a chaperone? I examined the road and saw that it was bumpy and pockmarked like a teenager’s face. Country lanes are seldom re-tarmacked, local councils contenting themselves with patching-up here and re-laying there, if they bother to fix pot holes at all. I had stumbled on a concavity, a deep enough depression to lose my footing and set me all awry. Why did I not carry a torch to view this hidden dip?, you ask. I was indeed carrying a torch, but it was shining well ahead of me, down the lane. It was illuminating my immediate destination rather than my immediate location. Had I pointed it downward, my foot need not have stumbled and I should be less bruised.

I am always scratting round for blog ideas, and regular readers will know I’ll squeeze any drop of truth out of an experience if I possibly can. As falling over is still a relatively novel pastime in my life, I think it worth pondering. Do not worry about how you will die, or achieve such-and-such, or spend your retirement. Be concerned with the here-and-now. Ask for God’s mercy and grace for where you are, and not where you think you will be.

Your sandals shall be iron and bronze;

As your days, so shall your strength be.

Deuteronomy 33:25

For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.  

2 Corinthians 6:2