Until we meet again

'Until we meet again'

A popular phrase uttered by people when they part and don’t expect to meet anytime soon. It’s a hope I’ve had when saying goodbye to friends, some of whom I haven’t seen for many years, separated by large distances. But I never thought I’d be saying it to someone living in the same district, city, block, in fact, just a few meters away from me, in the next house. The current lockdown has made the possibility of meeting other people, temporarily, a distant hope.

It got me thinking, what does it really mean to meet someone, to truly connect with them, to have a meaningful conversation with them? We live in a society that teaches us to be efficient, keep our conversations to the point, it’s all about getting what we need, and moving on.

Has something been lost in the way we connect with each other?

Genesis 32: 24-28

Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

A powerful and intimate moment. Jacob, the man who desperately longed for his father’s blessing, now meets His heavenly Father and refuses to let go until he is blessed.

This encounter leaves me in awe of God. It makes me realise how superficial my short times of ‘devotion’ have been, how small minded my prayers to Him have been. This passage reminds me that I don’t know yet what it means to connect with God. To wrestle with Him, to long for His blessing. As long as it takes to hear Him, no matter how fearful or wounded I am.

Have you truly connected with Him? Until we do, I don’t think we will truly connect with each other.

Let’s connect with God. Let’s seek Him out in the time we have been given, let’s cry out to Him for the pain so many experience.

Until we meet again.

Ashish Ailawadi

Photo Credit: Unsplash