By Canon Deborah Parsons
I was dismayed to hear of the deliberate acts of sabotage to the French high-speed rail network hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, affecting at least 250,000 passengers.
I caught a radio interview in which a family received an alert saying that their train had been cancelled, minutes before they were due to leave home. Their long-awaited dream of attending the opening ceremony of the Olympics appeared to be dashed, as they saw the opportunity of a life-time and their carefully-constructed plans evaporating like the morning mist, though they were given a smidgeon of hope when they later learnt that their train had been delayed rather than cancelled and were eventually able to begin their long-anticipated journey.
It reminded me of the thousand-mile trek my parents made from Blackpool to the South of France each year for a camping holiday. The campsites we stayed at varied, Dinard, Giens, Mimizan Plage, but the journeys were remarkably similar. First there was the initial excitement, then the challenges of the journey, and finally the delight at reaching our destination.
Looking back, I cannot understand why my parents would suffer the purgatory of that journey, each year with three whingeing children in the back of the car but they must have thought that the end result was worth it.
Journeying is a recurrent motif in the Bible. Abraham and Sarai journey from Ur to Canaan; the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land; and of course, Jesus journeys to Jerusalem.
At this time of year, now that schools, colleges and universities have broken up for the Summer, many people will be embarking on journeys.
Not all of us will have as tiresome or troublesome a journey as the recent TGV passengers but perhaps there is some wisdom in learning to travel lightly, to be with whatever arises and to find, as Abraham and Sarai did on their journeying, that God was there too.
God of our pilgrimage,
You invite us to walk your unknown ways:
Teach us to entrust the past to your mercy,
the present to your grace
and the future to your providence;
that transformed by your Spirit
we may be faithful disciples of your Son, Jesus Christ Amen.