My heart's desire

Psalm 122

"Where does the sea stop"? America. That was my mother's answer as we stood on the Pembrokeshire coast watching the gentle ebb and flow of sunlit ripples on the Atlantic Ocean.  America was an imaginary place far, far away. A place to occupy a space in a dream world. As my horizons grew America extended to the other shining sea, the Pacific. Then details began to be filled in. There was the picture of the car driving through a giant redwood tree in California and the depth of the Grand Canyon.

We went to America, we went to live in America. The first summer there we flew to Hawaii. I was going to see the Pacific. I wanted to savour the first sight. I kept my blind open over New Mexico and then California watching for the moment when brown earth gave way to shimmering sea.

However for seasoned long-haul flyers the excitement of the flight is what movie will be shown. No simple excitement in the beauty and magnificence of Our Father's created world, no wonder at the fact that travel is so easy.

My neighbour asked me to close my blind, the golden sun obscured her vision of the silver screen. I was a pouting child whose toy had been removed.

I can imaging the joy of a Jew as they saw the golden Temple atop the mound, as they saw the blessed city, their journey's end. Those who lived in Jerusalem probably had a different impression of the city.

I would like to judge my neighbour but the truth is that we were on different agendas.