Thought for the Day - Family ties and familiar things we take for granted

Mum is almost 90 and caring for Dad before he passed was hard, and then recovering from that exhaustion took time. A mix of joy and heaviness.

But now the time finally comes for a wee trip. It may well be a once in a lifetime trip for her, and I can’t wait to show her part of my world.

These things got me thinking about the familiar things in our lives. The things we take for granted because they are familiar. Thinking about how these things shape who we are. Places, things and routines.

Life here is dominated by trees and mountains. My wife, bless her, occasionally says horrible things like: “I’m tired of seeing mountains!” How could she?

One of my favourites is Mt. Morell. It has a fire tower from which you can see to forever. I’ve been there many times, summer and with a bit of snow still on the trail. It makes me glad that I drive a 4X4. We won’t need that in the August heat.

Glacier National Park is another of my beloved places to visit, as it reminds me of Scotland in the way that the sky is ever changing and the climate can change in a span of a few minutes.

The storms can come in an instant and disappear just as quickly. Also just going over Logan’s Pass can change the climate within just a few hundred metres.

I could describe this place for pages and pages. It is the familiar that shapes you and me. I preach Jesus, read the psalms and other scriptures that sink into my heart. They become part of what shapes how I see my world.

Whether among my the mountains or the Scottish glens, whether fire towers or kirk steeples, we carry familiar things that stabilize our lives. They remind us who we are and perhaps show us our way forward.

My Mum is coming, I’m excited. But it reminds me as well that God meets us in the familiar paths we know if we are looking just as surely as the extraordinary. The psalmist reminds us that “The Lord is my rock and my fortress.” (Psalm 18:2)

Familiar words that echo in my life journey.