Yesterday I needed to travel to Glasgow for a meeting. As my train neared Central Station I wondered what/how I would feel. Actually I didn't feel anything very much, realising that, although I had lived longer in Glasgow than anywhere else, I am, at heart, a 'wandering Aramean'. It was a beautifully sunny day, and Glasgow was looking her very best, but she isn't home anymore, rather, like London and Northampton, like Warrington, Derby, Leicestershire and Manchester, she is somewhere I once lived, whose story is part of mine (and I part of hers) but all of it part of greater, more mysterious and wonderful whole. I don't expect other people to 'get' that, since most people are rooted somewhere, but it's my truth. I loved my time in Glasgow, and I treasure the memories and the friendships... but my 'citizenship' isn't defined by geography. I recall half a lifetime ago saying 'wherever I park my car, that's my home'... now I guess I would, if pressed, say 'home is where my cats are.'
The photo is inside Andrew's Cathedral in Glasgow - somewhere I had never been able to visit when I lived there. It is a beautiful, tranquil place, and reminder of the universality of God's unending love that is unconfined by human geography.
Comments
I get that!