A shrinking world

It's a small world - and it's getting smaller by the minute!  At least, that is the impression that one gets, particularly at this time of year, as people jet off for their holidays.  The steady trickle of picture postcards is testimony to this fact!

Places which once seemed remote and exotic are now just a few hours way from Luton, Stanstead, Gatwick or Heathrow.  Mind you, with the current roadworks on the M25, the journey to the airport can become an epic trip in itself!

Some friends of ours have gone to Australia, Singapore and Fiji - places that it took years for Captain Cook and other explorers to find but which they will reach in a few days and hours.

It seems that, for many of us, holidays are not so much about getting away from it all any more.  They are about seeing something different, experiencing different cultures and places, as well as merely 'relaxing'. It is not just idyllic beaches that we seek, but also cities and museums.  We want to be stimulated as well as to relax. We want to learn more about the world in which we live.

Travel broadens the mind! We are the first generation to be really able to experience so many cultures and see so many parts of God's world at first hand with relative ease.  We return from our trips with stories of ‘how they do things over there’ and with newly acquired tastes for new types of food which we struggle to replicate in our own kitchens, with varying success.

But as we travel, as we experience new things, new people and new places, we need to remember that we are highly privileged to have this experience.  We are privileged to be given a window onto God's world, to be able to see and experience the great diversity of his creative power as we see and experience the things and people that God has so wonderfully made.

We are privileged to be able to take time, too, for recreation, refreshment, and stimulation when so many of our fellow human beings continue to work hard just to scrape together enough food and money in order to survive.  For the poorest in this world, a holiday trip for them is as remote as a weekend on the moon seems to us!

So we must not squander these privileges that God gives us in the forms of holidays and travel. We should use them wisely, to develop our understanding of God's world and his creative power so that we might be able to worship him more.

We should use these privileges to help us develop our understanding of others in the world and the situations of their lives and our relationship with them.

We should use these privileges to be stimulated and refreshed so that we can serve Him better in the months to come.  Read Psalm 104 and thank God for his world - and the
privilege of holidays in which to enjoy it !
 

by Graham Clarke.