16th August 2020
Dear Friends
In front of me I have a painting, temporarily with
me until I can meet with my friend to return it, it depicts two Zimbabwean
women standing on a small hillock greeting each other, renewing their
friendship from the year before or maybe longer, as they meet for the Mothers
Union Convention, women had travelled many, many, miles to be there together,
in the background are what from this year on we now call bubbles of women conversing together. A bright and
vibrant picture full of love and joy, it took some of them days to get there.
Like the many days it took Joseph’s brothers to
travel to Egypt, then a joyful reunion
with tears of gladness and joy for Joseph, for his brothers there is a mixture
of bewilderment and dismay, plus the realisation that their deed has been
exposed and what will be the repercussion of that. They can’t answer in the
moment but later, Joseph falls upon each brothers neck to embrace them and show
they are forgiven and conversation begins in earnest.
It reminds me of the reunions still going on now,
the chance to meet up for the first time in months with our friends and loved
ones, and I suppose those meetings will sometimes be full of fixed emotions and
story too.
Jesus has come aside he has retreated from the
crowd entering a different district for peace and quiet, the disciples know
this and try to put away the Canaanite women but she persists, who knows how
Jesus said the words to her, it sounds so rude to us, did he have a twinkle in
his eye and did she return with the same humour in her response, but she is
persistent in her need for her daughter. Jesus doesn’t declare to anyone else
in what we have recorded, but her and the Centurion, “Women great is your
faith”.
Sometimes the mountains are high and hard but
surmounting them is achievable for us all when we call upon the Lord.
Let’s continue in our personal prayers this week to
remember those in Beirut for whom each day is still a struggle and torment.
Let’s pray for the families and those involved in the train crash yesterday,
especially for the train drivers family as they tried to return the train to
safety for everyone from one slip only to encounter the other which took their
life. In fact let’s remember all train drivers because it is not a job without
many dangers and stresses.
Blessings to you all, Georgina.
