Reflections in a desert place

I have just been away the Sinai region of Egypt.

There's alot of desert there. It was a daunting environment to drive through...so arid and bleak.

I've also been reading, as you do on holiday. I've been really loving a book called The Journey by Alister McGrath. It's a real and wise book about the Christian journey, and the different places and seasons you encounter on the journey. Here's a prayer in the book from Anselm of Canterbury, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093;

I thirst for you, I hunger for you, I desire you, I sigh for you, I covet you:

I am like an orphan deprived of the presence of a very loving Father,

who, weeping and wailing, does not cease to cling to the dear face with all his whole heart....

All this I hold with unwaivering faith,

and weep over the hardship of exile,

hoping in the sole consolation of your coming,

ardently longing for the glorious contemplation of your face.

Richard