Good morning, I don't normally find pleasure in other people's misfortune, but the other week it was almost inevitable. We were on holiday in Scotland. We'd caught an early morning ferry before driving across the open roads that cut through the rugged highlands. The views were truly beautiful and I couldn't help but smile as the radio warned me of other people facing tailbacks on motorways, congestion on ring roads, and delays to commuters of more than an hour.
Maybe someone up there saw my smile because no sooner had it flashed across my face than I found myself behind a caravan that slowed my progress for the next ten miles.
Whether you are stuck behind a mobile home in the countryside or in between two lorries on a motorway there's not much you can do but stare out at the world around you.
Later on, when all the travelling was over, I lamented the tedium of such journeys to a friend, but he reminded me that Jesus spent a lot of time on the road as well, moving round the towns and villages of Galilee, but most of the time he walked, seeing the world at a steady 3 miles an hour.
Travelling at that kind of pace probably helped him to become such a keen observer of life, gathering the insights that would reappear in the stories he told. Nothing much to do except pay attention to people and places, the times and seasons. I think that's when Jesus would've done much of his thinking and even his praying. Could it be that he was stuck behind a camel when he realised that in God's kingdom, the first would be last and the last will be first?
Lord, who knows what we might discover this morning
If we're moving slow enough to notice:
Help us in the busyness of this coming day
to keep pace with you Amen
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