<
Cricket through the Fingers
This summer for many of us has been lived through our fingers. At times it has been barely possible to watch all that has been going on at five cricket grounds around the country. Finger nails are shorter, hair greyer – as one of the players put it, it has been an emotional rollercoaster.
All of life has been condensed down into 7 weeks. The ups, the down, the mourning, the joy, the frustration, the success.
And then on Monday the triumph (though we hardly dare believe it – as we waited for the match to be abandoned it seems as if the world itself did not believe it – time stood still!) followed by the victory procession.
Paul, in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians, where he has talked much about suffering, thinking about victory processions in honour of victorious generals coming to Rome, wrote: “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.” – 2 Corinthians 2:14.
In the last 7 weeks, we have also had the Christian faith journey in a nutshell. Ups and down, the lot. But, and it is a huge but: one day as each one of us enters God’s eternity, there will be a victory procession. If you watched Tuesday on TV – or were there: you ain’t seen nothing yet!
And Paul is telling us one thing more. That victory procession is not something in the future. In Christ, God already “always leads us in triumphal procession”. For even in the midst of life and death, Christ who arose from the grave in great victory, is with us. Ours is to through prayer, reading of the scriptures, faith and more besides, to allow these truths to sink deep within us, to sustain us in all that takes place in daily life.