When Pressure meets Presence

 

Two years ago this week, after the UK went into lockdown, we had our first cases of Covid 19 here in the islands. Within a few short days we were also confined to our homes and the nightmare had begun. Now Europe is at war again for the first time since 1945, at least from the invasion of a sovreign country by a neighbour. And the cost of everything is soaring, so that the dreaded word 'inflation' - the plague of 1970's Britain - is back with a vengeance. Tough times are here, and nowhere more so than in the residential areas of Ukraine.

Part of the learning experiences of the last two years has been the understanding that we can't go on behaving in the way we used to. Hand hygiene and mask-wearing in enclosed spaces have become common-place, driven by the fear of infection. Adversity forces change. It makes us think again about our safety and comfort. It changes our priorities. Think about the people huddled in a Kyev basement, hiding from Russian bombs. They have fled their homes with only what they could carry, pets and all. Now, all that matters is life and freedom. Their ordeal has totally realigned their priorities.

But we should not be surprised that suffering produces change. The Bible teaches that it at least can produce patience and perseverance, and those are good, but we would far rather dispense with the adversity in the first place and go straight to the 'lesson learnt' stage without the pain. Yet nobody gets a testimony without a test. Perhaps it is only in retrospect that we can see glimmers of light in the black overlay of struggle and pain that life can be for so many.

So, two years on in this global pandemic, with war raging in Europe and the cost of living soaring, are there any signs of hope? God may not have given the deliverance we longed for, but he has given us his living presence. Once when Moses was facing a great challenge he famously prayed, 'if your presence does not go with us, Lord, please don't take us there!'. But he did, and he was, - with them in their battle to claim a promised land.

The name 'Emanuel' means 'God with us' and it was given to Jesus. Born in a borrowed stable, fleeing with his parents as refugees into another country, rejected by his own people and then crucified by a cruel foreign invading army - he truly is with us! And the best news is that the grave could not hold him - he rose again. Thank God for Jesus!