Wednesday, March 18, 2026

 

 

Isaiah 49:14

But the people of Jerusalem said 'The Lord has abandoned us! He has forgotten us.' So the Lord answers, “Can a woman forget her own baby and not love the child she bore? Even if a mother should forget her child, I will never forget you.

How interesting it is that the comfort offered in these words written thousands of years ago is still the comfort we seek today!

The darkness we are witnessing on the world’s stage, coupled with the moments of darkness we experience in our own lives seem to be causing many emotional reactions – sometimes we express despair: That’s it! We’re doomed! How can a merciful God subject us to such destruction, so much suffering? Sometimes we may feel disdain for humanity. Or maybe we separate ourselves from our faith for fear of being associated with Christianity as we are ashamed of Christians acting in a not so Christian manner in the name of Christ.

If God IS love and love is within each and everyone of us, how is it that it/he could abandon us? It is just not possible.  We were created by love in love.  It is woven into our very fabric. Quantum Science has discovered that every one of our cells produces LIGHT!

Why do we forget this?  Do we become distracted by where we choose to look?  Is there darkness within each of us that likes to dwell on the darkness we, see?  Are we succumbing to the temptation of evil? Or is darkness a habit?

Does it ever truly feel good to dwell in darkness? Does it serve us?

These days when I sing hymns, or read spiritual texts, I often find myself replacing the word God, Jesus and the Lord simply with the word Love, for example:

John chapter 5 verse 25:

I am telling you the truth: the time is coming – the time has already come- when the dead will hear the voice of LOVE, and those that hear it will come to life.

Or the restoring hymn:

God Be in My Head.  

Love be in my head, and in my understanding; Love be in mine eyes and my looking…

Love be in my heart and in my thinking…

When I hear a love song on my playlist - in my mind, I imagine that the song is giving praise to God. I’ll listen to John Denver’s, Annie’s Song, and I hear a prayer:

Let me always be with You. Come let me love You. Come love me again.

Isn’t it interesting how sometimes the darkness can sneak into our minds – especially this time of the year, maybe after having tuned into the news.  We can be going about our day and realize that darkness has set in.   Perhaps we’re short with a driver in traffic who is driving too slow, a spouse who is breathing, or a child that is saying “6-7” for the one hundredth time, maybe we feel despair at how very little one hundred dollars will buy at the grocery store, maybe technical glitches are leaving us with our jaws clenched and blood pressure high, and EVERYTHING seems technical these days! Perhaps we find ourselves aggravated by “the system” that seems so unfair, maybe we feel unhappy with our life circumstances or maybe we’re experiencing all of this and feeling not quite fully alive - feeling something closer to dead than alive.

Perhaps: “the time is coming – the time has already come”!  We turn to God to his son our Lord Jesus – and through him we feel LOVE.  How can we turn toward light and not see it?  And how can we truly turn toward love and not feel it?

Maybe we’re being asked to choose Love- every time, even when we don’t want to.  Maybe we can use the darkness in the world as a reminder to lean into Love. To develop the habit of Love.  Perhaps this was the spirit in which H. Walford Davies wrote the hymn: God Be in My Head.

God be in my head and in my understanding. God be in mine eyes and in my looking.  God be in my mouth and in my speaking. God be in my heart and in my thinking. God be at mine end and at my departing.

Heather Goodwin
Parish of All Saints, Halifax


God be in my head   The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge · H. Walford Davies

 

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