Day 41 Part 3 - Worcester

(continued from Part Two)

I don't know Worcester well but a short walk through the city centre suggested that it's a prosperous place. I struggled to find somwhere to eat though - lots of cafes and bars that served lunches were already closed for the evening.

I sat in a cheap chicken and pizza place, with a modest chicken burger and fries, while a customer and the counter staff debated, in Urdu I think, the situation in the Swat Valley in Pakistan.

I met up with my mother and after a long search for somewhere for a quiet drink, we talked for a couple of hours.

Of all the Bible's passages in which a walking journey is significant, the encounter of the risen Jesus and the two disheartened disciples on the Emmaus Road is one of the best known.

The incident is recorded in Luke 24.17, "And he said to them, 'What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?'"

At this point, the identity of the stranger is unknown to the two disciples. They talk of their discouragement at the death of Jesus. After a long conversation they invite him to join them for dinner.

Only as he takes the bread, blesses it and shares it with them to they realise who he is. That Jesus is with them now is miraculous; that he was with them on the road in their unbelief, graciously present and undemanding, is even more amazing.

"Lord, thank you for your walking with me, even when my preoccupations have blinded me to your presence. Amen."