Thinking this morning not of asking to see Christ’s face, but the need to walk close behind his back. Again, since I am in a writing as I pray phase, at least for a wee while anyway, here is a snippet of my prayer, with slight alterations to make it easier to read. I hope it might help some of you today.

“O Christ, my elder brother, bigger than me in every way, your stripped to the bone shoulders and back, clothed in a Conqueror’s glory are my hiding place. Confined once to a cruel tree for me, they are broad enough for all the world to shelter behind from storms common to us all.

Today, Jesus, I think as ever of your face set like flint from eternity through time to eternity to a “Yes” to Abba. But this thought of your back brings such strength too. In the midst of praying, “Show me Thy face, O Lord, ” I find this prayer sounding: keep my eyes upon your back, your sheltering back, for then whatever today’s weather, I can walk on.

In the midst of wanting to see what you see for me, this thought emerges: “Could I handle that?” Help me to walk onwards in the shelter of your back, watching the ground before me, the non existent space between us, for every fresh imprint of your never faltering and never retreating Conqueror’s heel.”