For the Days When All We Hear Is,' We Don't Know.'

 From Everlasting 

For days when all we hear is, ‘We don’t know.’

These days, when I write asking for dates, guidance or information, the answer is often,  

‘We don’t know.’

The unknown is sometimes more difficult to negotiate and navigate, that working with the difficult known.

That’s my abiding memory of the first lockdown, learning that even a difficult time is made easier if you can see light at the end.

It might be someone actually making a decision about exams dates or putting in place what must have been a difficult decision to close Church buildings for the first time.

Sometimes when the decision is actually made, we are able to make the adjustments necessary when living though even the most challenging times. One of the notable stresses of this current lockdown is the shifting end date. It feels like a never-ending journey.

I notice it in information I am preparing to the parish here. There isn’t any guidance to share about confirmation because a decision hasn’t been  made. There isn’t guidance about Baptisms other than we have to wait until we are able to gather. A lovely set of gifts from a family are waiting to dedicated in memory of loved one. That too is waiting.

Couples preparing for Marriage are also waiting to see if the restrictions will change.

And families journeying through a bereavement have been very patient as we adjust to very restrictive guidance in what is already a very difficult time.

 Today’s Old Testament reading from Proverbs bring us back to first things. 

It speaks of Wisdom, often associated with the Holy Spirit,

The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old;
I was formed long ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be.

When there were no watery depths ... when there were no springs overflowing with water … before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills … before he made the world

or its fields or any of the dust of the earth.
I was there when he set the heavens in place,
when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,

when he established the clouds above
and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,
when he gave the sea its boundary so that the waters would not overstep his command,

and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.
Then I was constantly at his side.
I was filled with delight day after day,
rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in the human race.

Sometimes in the uncertain we look to what we know. 

Familiar routines, much loved walks, the unchanging views of local hills.

Proverbs would have us look much deeper and further, to something which is unchanging and everlasting. Scripture reminds us of the Lord God, whose deeds are from of old, who brought this world in being, and caused the springs to overflow, and set those familiar hills in place; He established the cloud, and set the foundations in place.

Wisdom tells us that she

‘was constantly at his side.
I was filled with delight day after day,
rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world 

and delighting in the human race’. Proverbs 8 

We have a God who made this world, and who delights in us. He is more stable and dependable than even the most beautiful familiar walk, or the loveliest mountain view. 

I have been listening today to the familiar lyrics of the hymn,

O God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come,

Our shelter from the stormy blast, And our eternal home:

Beneath the shadow of thy throne, Thy saints have dwelt secure;

Sufficient is thine arm alone, And our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood, Or earth received her frame,

From everlasting thou art God, To endless years the same.

A thousand ages in thy sight Are like an evening gone;

Short as the watch that ends the night Before the rising sun.

Much as I look forward to gathering again for Sunday services, and many of the other aspects of parish ministry, knowing that I like and benefit from the routine of what is familiar, in these days I am learning again to look to the greater strength and hope who is the Lord God. 

I am continuing to learn to trust the God of our ages past, and to find shelter beneath the shadow of His throne.

We continue on in the unknowing of these days, the ‘We don’t know’ responses of those from whom I would like answers, and the loss of the familiar choices we would make in our daily lives, knowing that the One who brought this world into being will uphold us in these set apart days.