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Good morning.Ìý
The lady in the crowd moved towards us – two grandparents and our four grandchildren having a break on a bench.Ìý She was part of the crush of all the tourists in the world who were laying siege to Edinburgh Castle.ÌýÌýÌý

She smiled, pointed to her phone, took a picture and melted away before we could attempt to speak to her.Ìý I hope we got lots of ‘likes’ when she posted it on the internet later in the day.Ìý

I listened to the voices around me – Chinese, Japanese and Americans mostly.Ìý Some were well-informed - knowing where they were and what they were looking at.Ìý Others had the slightly weary look of people doing what they felt they ought to do.Ìý

And theÌýwoman with the phone?Ìý I suspect that what she saw was a little human tableau in the middle of the crush and she decided to capture it.Ìý Maybe she too was a doting grandparent.Ìý Maybe she too had spent a morning with lively small children in a pressing crowd counting to four over and over again in terror of losing one.Ìý

The Bible of course doesn’t really envisage tourism.Ìý But it does speak of the meeting and minglings of peoples – the confusion of the language at the Tower of Babel suddenly given new clarity in the speaking in tongues at Pentecost.Ìý And the Book of Revelation which celebrates the vision of heaven in which ‘nations, kindreds, peoples and tribes’ gather around the throne of God.

ÌýI suspect that the friendlyÌýwomanÌýwith the phone had glimpsed something which for her encapsulated that common humanity.Ìý I shall remember her.Ìý

O Lord God,
In a world full of tension, division and anger
We thank you for the humanity which we share
As people made in your image
Keep us open to one another
As we build a world of hope and justice.Ìý Amen