May God still our waves and smooth our ridges

I am writing this early, ahead of going off on holiday over February halfterm.

And I am ready for the break.

Like many others I know, I don’t seem to have been able to shake off a head cold since the start of the year. Just a cold, but everything is that little bit harder when it is an effort to breathe, and with a foggy headache.

Respect and empathy for those who live with respiratory conditions or chronic headaches all of the time! But, for now at least, I need space to recover.

Psalm 65 is a wonderful prayer of praise, painting a picture of agitated seas and a land worked hard by human demand finding rest, gifted them by God: ‘You still the raging of the seas, the roaring of their waves and the clamour of the peoples…You drench the furrows and smooth out the ridges; you soften the ground with showers and bless its increase’.

Nothing is too big or too small to escape God’s attentive kindness and generosity, bringing all back into a place of harmony and fruitfulness. I am aware of the furrows on my forehead, in need not of Botox or night cream but of relaxation.

If you, too, have been away on holiday, my prayer is that you have returned home refreshed.

For us all, in the moments of the day to catch breath, put our feet up and have a cup of tea, may God still our waves and smooth our ridges.