When the grief of chronic illness strikes, I am Adam and Eve, homesick for Eden, looking at the angel barring the way back. My sickness is part of the metaphor that reminds me of the brokenness of the world. When I am paddling in the clear Mediterranean, I am John in Patmos, with a glimpse of heaven and the riches of eternal life with the Creator.
Even this week, there have been three gangs of marauding machete-wielding men terrorising our neighbourhood. So we padlock our doors and pray more, and more than anything I’m desperate that my kids don’t get freaked out by the guns
How do you respond when the reality of your life is so different from your hope? Miller argues that Christians are to be different – it is possible to thrive in the desert, in the tension, pain and mystery, because God is with us. We see the huge chasm between hope and reality, and somehow walk in the middle. Prayer is the key to survival when you are in the desert.
The best book I’ve read this year is “Suite Francaise” by Irene Nemirovsky, about the French occupation during the Second World War. She was writing in 1942, living in wartime France. It was unfinished, because she was taken to Auschwitz before she had a chance to complete it. Her notebooks have only recently been discovered. […]
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Tanya Marlow blogs on the Bible, suffering and the messy edges of life [read more]