You are there
If I travel through the desert
you are there.
If all my thoughts are arid
you are there.
If all of life seems pointless
and throws you on the scrapheap
you are there…and there…and there.
For all my fears and fevering,
all my anguish,
all my hollowness,
all the haunted conversations
in my head
cannot erase your beauty
or take away your faithfulness.
You are there
and here
and always.
You are there
immovable,
immutable;
you are here.
Like a drowning person clutching a straw
or a scream running across a bridge
I cling to hope
and run towards
the arms of God
to welcome me home.
You are there.
Kate McIlhagga - From "Not for the Faint-Hearted - Prayers and Poems for Lent"
Sometimes, perhaps especially in these seemingly never ending months of separation and anxiety, God feels far away. Some may even wonder why we’re bothering to try to stay hopeful, find interesting things to do, go for a walk, eat properly. What’s the point if we can’t even see the people we love?
Jesus promised, and countless generations have found it to be true, that God will never, never abandon us. We may not be aware of his presence, but he is there with us always, whatever our state of mind or our lack of faith. We are always kept in his loving care…he
is there.