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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Bishop David Walker

In an unexpected place

Good Morning

It was a warm afternoon, and I was sat outside a cafe in the central square of a small provincial city, nestling in the highlands of Peru. Looking up, I saw a friend from my then diocese walking across the square. As he drew close, I called out his name, and walked over to greet him. It鈥檚 the closest I鈥檝e ever come to giving someone a heart attack. I was someone he would expect in the normal course of life, to see a couple of times a month. He just never imagined encountering me, or anyone else he knew, so far from home.

For Christians, it鈥檚 not only fellow human beings who may turn up where we would least expect. God does it too. From the story of Moses and the burning bush to Jesus being born in a stable, the Hebrew and Christian scriptures are full of stories of the divine being found in the least likely places. Eight hundred years ago, a young St Francis of Assisi had his life changed forever after God spoke to him from a painted crucifix in a tumbledown church.

Life for religious believers would be simpler if only God limited his appearances to the obvious places, such as ornate worship buildings and carefully choreographed rituals. But it would be a very small God prepared to be so confined. Hardly one worth worshipping. So today, I pray:

Surprise me God with your presence. May I find you in the place that seems most godforsaken. May I recognise you in the face of the stranger who seems at first least like you. And may I discover you working your deeds of love, where love seems farthest away.

Amen.