The New Room is sharing a Friday reflection each week. We hope that these short reflections will act as a point of spiritual focus, enabling a moment of quiet thought and prayer.

This week’s reflection is from Gwyneth Dean. Gwyneth is long retired from Primary Education, a Local Preacher and a volunteer at the New Room.

Psalm 139 verses 1 – 18

If you are brave enough to go on a roller coaster at a theme park you do have the benefit of seeing where the high points and the low points are before you get to them. It probably won’t stop you from screaming as you plunge up and down, but they are expected and you can at least brace yourself to cope with them.

For many people the past months have been rather like riding a roller coaster but without the advantages of seeing what is to come or the choice of whether or not you want the ride.

But Psalm 139 reminds us that we are never alone in the highs and the lows of life.

This is a psalm for everyone. The Psalmist says “you have searched me and known me” and goes on to show how God travels with us along whatever path we follow. Yet God is not a private God, he is the God of all, in every place and in every person.

Believing this is so much easier when we are on the familiar ground, when we can plan for more than a day at a time. Much harder when we are in challenging times, when we are faced with uncertainty, with prejudice, with cruelty and exclusion. Much harder when we don’t have the reassurance of seeing family and friends as regularly as we might have done in the past.

This year we have become used to connecting with our friends by letter, by cards, by phone calls and for the more technologically minded, by Facebook, Skype and video calls. However it is still all too easy to feel isolated and alone.

The Psalmist encourages us to hold on to the knowledge that God is constant. He is not limited by any earthly restrictions. If we can remember that, we will find it easier to cope with the lows of life and look forward to the time when there will be more things to celebrate once again.

Prayer

Loving God
You know us better than we know ourselves and still love us.
No matter what we do or where we go your love encircles us.
When we feel alone, fearful, unsure of the way forward, you are there sharing our concerns and encouraging us forward.
Your are the God of the past, the present and the future.
As you have been with the generations before us, help us to acknowledge and give thanks for that presence with us today.