Comfort and Rest

Internet with decent speed is not part of our experience of rural life. We struggle at the best of times. Now, with children doing school work online, work-outs and streaming movies and so on, it can slip further, making skype calls a challenge, Zoom meetings frustrating when several people want to talk at the same time.

Technology is helping us get through this time of lock down, but it is such a poor second to meeting friends and loved ones in person, hugging and just enjoying each other’s company. We are made for relationship, and enforced separation is painful.

On a Skype call last night, there was frequent interference in the form of other voices cutting in and out, other voices having other conversations. I am old enough to remember having a ‘party line’ when I was young. Four households shared the same number, and so we had to take turns using the phone.

I am grateful that our connection to God is not via Skype or Zoom or Meeting Rooms. I am grateful that there is nobody listening in; that the only interference is from my own distracting thoughts. We were made for relationship: first with God, then with other people. During this lock down, I think of all those who are bereaved, anxious, stuck in challenging circumstances or just plain lonely because of the imposed disconnection, and pray that God will break in on any unhelpful thoughts with his loving presence today. May those who are searching for answers find comfort and rest in God.