God is faithful through life’s upheavals

I was driving down the motorway a few months ago, listening to a new worship album and the hymn ‘Great is Thy Faithfulness’ began to play. In that moment, I was suddenly reminded of the time, many years ago, when this hymn was a constant companion on our drive to school. I was 11 at the time and we had just moved to the UK. It was a time of much uncertainty.

Several months before that my five-year-old brother was found to have a malignant tumour and then a few months later civil war broke out in Sri Lanka, the country of my birth. And so my parents, wanting a better life for us all, decided to leave. My father, a doctor, was able to get a job quickly but it was only temporary. On those cold, grey mornings, as we navigated our way from Bexhill to Hastings on unfamiliar roads with unfamiliar rules, which mirrored the new journey of our lives, we needed to hold onto God’s faithfulness and so we sang….

‘Great is thy faithfulness.’ It’s a song I’ve sung over and over again in the years since. And God has indeed been so faithful, in ways we dared not dream of in those early days. And as I near the end of my journey towards ordination, in these uncertain times of lockdown, I’m aware again of just how faithful God is. These last three years have undoubtedly been the most challenging years I have faced as we, as a family, have journeyed with illness and times of great uncertainty. And yet through it all, through the dark times and through the tears, I have known, and continue to know, God’s unfailing faithfulness and that morning by morning new mercies I do indeed see.

–Anjali Kanagaratnam completes her programme at Trinity this summer.