In the whole of February I will only have spent two nights in the UK. I am neither proud, nor entirely happy about that, but it is what it is. There have been compensations: sunrise over the Danube, long afternoon light reflecting off the sea ice in Maine, Paris bathed in evening sun. But there’s no denying that occasionally I feel like a ‘citizen of nowhere’.
Which brings me back to a favourite question: how to stay rooted, stay connected, when constantly on the move? For me the answer remains the Bible. Read on my phone wherever I am, in passages from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs, I meet God in that place.
The readings start on 1 January, so I’ve just finished Genesis and Matthew. In Genesis, I reread one of my favourite stories. Jacob, fleeing Esau, beds down in the wilderness, the absolute middle of nowhere, and, as he sleeps, he sees a ladder touching earth, with angels ascending and descending, and God appears to him. When he wakes up, he exclaims: ‘Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it! … How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’
Wherever I am, the Bible is with me, reminding me that however, far from home, I am always in God’s presence. That is my rock, my roots, what keeps me connected. I love being home, being settled, but when I’m not, I don’t need to be cut off, disconnected. Because through God’s word, I am being constantly reminded: ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it! … How awesome is this place!’
Revd Will Morris
