Travelling Step by Step.

Travelling Step by Step

Image: The Wise Ones © Jan Richardson

It is strange not being able to look beyond the next week with any accuracy.   For the first time in many of our lives we really cannot plan with any confidence at all.



Although this situation is imposed on us, perhaps we can learn something from others who have travelled into the unknown.   Yes, they may have gone by choice, but they had little control or knowledge of the circumstances they would face.



This lovely poem from Jan Richardson called ‘For those who have far to travel’  is written as a blessing for Epiphany which celebrates the journey of the Magi whose journey was full or uncertainty and surprises.  



If you could see
the journey whole,
you might never
undertake it,
might never dare
the first step
that propels you
from the place
you have known
toward the place
you know not.


Call it
one of the mercies
of the road:
that we see it
only by stages
as it opens
before us,
as it comes into
our keeping,
step by
single step.


There is nothing
for it
but to go,
and by our going
take the vows
the pilgrim takes:


to be faithful to
the next step;
to rely on more
than the map;
to heed the signposts
of intuition and dream;
to follow the star
that only you
will recognize.


“© Jan Richardson. janrichardson.com.” 

The remaining verses can be found at Jan’s website The Painted Prayerbook.



As we think of the millions in India walking home from the cities and the millions of refugees in the Middle East unable to distance themselves, may we gain a true perspective on the uncertainties of our own journey.  May we learn to live the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:34 

Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Like the wise men can we be open to noticing God in today’s unexpected places and his voice in the new language of strange circumstances.