Seeing Clearly

I have recently spent a few days with my daughter in the Scottish Highlands. The weather is not always great there, but when it is, there should be a beautiful view of the mountains from her house. She lives halfway up a hill, and there is an empty strip of land between hers and the lower house. But because it was full of willow trees, birches and general scrub, the view was being obscured.

While I was there, a friend came with various pruning implements and did a lot of clearing for her. So when the sun came out the next day, it revealed the mountains in all their glory: snow patches, deep valleys, a stream running between two of the peaks and the wonderful cloud patterns, which are always changing with the light. I spent quite a lot of time watching the changes – and then the cloud came down again and you wouldn’t know there was a mountain there at all.

It has been rather like that for me during lockdown, and I guess for many others who live on their own. My view has sometimes been obscured. Not being able to enjoy fellowship with other believers (or indeed anyone for part of the time) has meant that I have struggled from time to time with my relationship with God. It has been as though the clouds have come down and He has been obscured.

I find meeting with others on the internet is challenging, and though I have managed to ‘attend church’ each Sunday, prayer meetings have been a step too far. Perhaps it’s my age and the fact that I’m not that technically savvy! I have also found that I have had a general lack of motivation. There is no excuse for that, I know, but, in talking to others, I have discovered it doesn’t appear to be an uncommon experience.

But, whatever the view, whether clear or obscured, we can know that the Lord is always there, always, and that He will never leave us. That has been my comfort on those particularly ‘cloudy’ days.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You that You are always there, even when I don’t experience Your presence. I can know that Your loving care is surrounding me at all times and that the mists will clear in due course. Please give me the encouragement to hold on to that truth, in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.