Pesky Flies

Warmer weather brings us all outside. Including lazy black flying bugs – not exactly flies but just as annoying. The danger of speaking on today’s walk was that I might have a black bug stuck on a front tooth or surfing on my tongue. (It didn’t stop me …)

Irritating and annoying. But not dangerous, as far as I know. They don’t bite. They don’t carry disease. They just duck and dive in front of your face as you walk or cycle.

They represent the level of annoyance most of us in the west live with usually. Pesky irritations. Interruptions. Delays, not disease.

Covid-19 is a salutary lesson for us all, opening our eyes to the knife edge on which most of the world lives normally. I’ve never forgotten the choir of Ugandan orphans who sang for us in Banchory years ago. At the evening service, we circled round for a spontaneous thanksgiving prayer. None of ‘us’ could get a word in, so sparky were these destitute children in voicing their gratitude to God. ‘Thank you for the sunshine’; ‘thank you for my hands and feet’; ‘thank you for Jesus’.

They had a lot more to contend with than a few pesky flies. Now, in a pandemic, I have more respect than ever for those who live with such uncertainty, and do so with grace and joy, exuberant joy.

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer, Paul wrote to the Romans. Reminded of that verse recently, it seems so appropriate right now. I pray that joy will extend its roots deeper into my being than they have ever been. Anchored in the love of Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.