God is never absent
By the Reverend Joanne Hood I’m reminded this week of the old adage,“absence makes the heart grow fonder”.
I’ve never quite understood what it is in us that can make that appear to be a truth in life.
Perhaps it is that in creating some distance you leave behind frustrations that can be a necessary but draining part of living in relationship.
It could also be that in stepping out of a situation for at least a moment or two, it is easier to gain perspective and deeper understanding.
My other, related, thought on this is that it is only when we remove ourselves from our place of comfort, our sense of belonging and home, that we realise just what it is we appreciate about it.
This week I am on study leave from the parish of Hamilton St John’s (which is perhaps why it came into my mind in the first place) and for me the adage holds true.
When I step away from where I live and work and minister I always initially enjoy the change and the luxury of focussing on one piece of work, but I inevitably reach a point when I want to get back to what I know and love.
Of course, many of us experience both the‘growing fonder’and the ‘enjoying a rest’that comes with absence - depending what it is we have stepped away from.
I think both can be productive for us but we are told something quite different about our relationship with God.
The reason I say that is because we have an assurance that God is never ‘absent’from us.
We might aim to distance ourselves at times. We might even be glad to do so, but our God is not one who seeks to be absent but rather is ever-present with us whether we know it, seek it, comprehend it, or not.
Even when we have absented ourselves from that particular relationship God is waiting for us to return, perhaps with an enhanced perspective or a fonder heart or a deeper understanding but ... we will be accepted and loved however we are found.