Walking together

I love the tenderness in this photo, grandson and grandfather walking together. On the one side, a strong loving arm and on the other, the weight of wisdom. Jesus is here to walk alongside us, offering both.

None of us know what is around the next bend of life – Covid has reinforced that. I never expected my life to turn out as it has but it makes us all the difference when we know that we don’t have to walk alone.

It turns out that walking with God is among the three top things that God asks of us. What is required of you? To do justly, have mercy and to walk humbly with our God.  We discover that we cannot do the last without doing the first two.

I always chuckle when I read of Enoch that “he walked with God and then he was not” (Genesis 5:24).  Where was he? He was evidently whisked off to heaven in a divine teleportation. All we really know about him is that he walked with God. What an epitaph. The same is said of Noah a couple of chapters later.

Why does the Lord want us to walk with him through our days? For the same reason that Connor and my dad wanted to walk together, because they love each other’s company. God loves your company and you were made for his. It is as we turn our hearts to him through the day, that we discover how wonderful he is – glorious and strong, patient and forgiving, tender and true, wise and gentle, reassuring and challenging, holy and just. The invitation to walk with God is an invitation to know him.

So I am left asking how I can walk with God. Paul says, “walk in step with the Spirit” - not lagging behind, not racing ahead.  I have found that when I do that, the Holy Spirit gives me little prompts to ring someone or pray for someone. Life is so much more fulfilling. Last week, I felt I should share with someone the calling to step down to the humble place of depending on God and to step up to their identity as a child of the King. Simultaneously, they had been given a picture of steps going down and up to a bright waterfall.  God wants to walk with us and talk with us.

As I write this, I am challenged that too often I live life on my own terms. Thank God, we have such a merciful Saviour. Lord, may I walk with you today and all the days of my life.