Lines of communication

Forty years ago, a letter took three days to wing its way from California to north-eastern Scotland. Postage wasn’t very expensive. Transatlantic phone calls had to go through an overseas operator, who rang back when she had a clear line and it was ringing. It cost a lot. £1/minute. Those were the two options for maintaining contact with my family, so my parents wrote to me, and I wrote to them, every Sunday, and we received the up-to-the-minute news the following Wednesday.

Today, a letter takes a week or more and may never even arrive. It costs a lot. I paid over £10 to send a small packet to my mother and it never arrived. E-mail is free and instant. Skype is free to a computer, pennies to a phone. I can skype Mom most days. The biggest obstacles are the time difference and her busy social life!

I haven’t even mentioned WhatsApp, SMS, Facebook, Instagram…

Getting in touch with God hasn’t changed, though. Call out to me, he invites us. Sit with me. Rest in me. Confess to me. Come away with me. Listen.

I love you, he says, and it echoes through my heart. It’s free, and it’s instant. Praise him.

Getting to Know You

Don and I got to know each other mostly through transatlantic correspondence, in the days before skype and email. We shared our dreams and our opinions honestly and made plans together. 

What we didn’t share until we were together were those looks deep into one another’s eyes, those shared giggles at events, those discoveries of one another’s habits. 

The Pharisees studied the Scriptures and they knew their Messiah was coming. They were sure they would recognise him because they thought they understood exactly who they were looking for. A conquering King. But they were wrong, and they didn’t.

After the crucifixion, two of Jesus’ friends were trudging along the road to a nearby town, Emmaus. They were joined by a stranger who seemed ignorant of what had transpired in Jerusalem over the weekend. He explained the events by opening up the Scriptures more fully to them. He remained a stranger to them.

When he sat down at the supper table with them, though, and broke the bread and gave thanks...it was then that they recognised him as their risen Lord Jesus. They knew the way he broke bread. They’d shared a lot of bread with him.

It’s good to study the Scriptures. If we want to really know Jesus, though, and recognise him, we need to spend time in his presence, too. Worshiping. Waiting. Listening. Asking. Receiving. Then we begin to recognise him in our own daily walk, as we discern one or two of his characteristics often in unexpected ways or people. 

It was exciting to get to know Don and fall deeper in love. It’s exciting to get to know Jesus and fall deeper in love every day. He’s on the road with each of us. It doesn’t get better than that.

Grateful heart.