Thoughts for the Day

Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;
break forth, O mountains, into singing!
For the Lord has comforted his people,
and will have compassion on his suffering ones.

(Church in Wales Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

When I was a child we lived in Celle in Germany on an army camp. It was less than seven years after the end of the war, and we had a German maid called Trudi, a young girl aged about eighteen years old. My father was the CSM for the huge camp and we were expected to give employment to a young German person, since the locals lived in considerable poverty at that time.

We would go out every afternoon into the deep woods nearby, taking a sled in the winter. It was an amazing playground. I was a tomboy, constantly ending up with grazed knees full of gravel which then turned sceptic. I do remember Trudy cleaning my sore knees in the bath and being comforted by my mother, until one day an amazing yellow gauze appeared - it was the advent of penicillin!

Life was safe and secure with high barbed wire fences to protect the camp against any hostility, and the loving arms of a parent when needed. The verses from Psalm 49 reminds us that when we are in pain, whatever that is, God is there to wrap us in His loving arms when we turn to Him. He has 'compassion on his 'suffering ones'.

Heavenly Father,
when we are in pain,
whether physical or mental,
and whether it is for ourselves or others,
help us to remember
that You stand ready to comfort us.
Help us also to remember that
You understand us and are there
to offer Your loving arms
and a listening ear to ease our pain.
Amen.