As the news came through of the suspected terrorist attack at Westminster yesterday, my mind went back to a moment in August 1989. I was falling in love with Janice. We were up at Westminster on a hot sunny afternoon. We had sat at Westminster and gazed across the London skyline. I had never been to London until that summer and I was mesmerised and in love with its vibrancy, art and music.
I was also falling in love with Janice. As we headed towards the Tube Station at Westminster that afternoon I found myself a few yards ahead of her. I looked back and she was laughing and my heart took a photograph of that moment. Love was bursting through my chest in the most delirious way!
I think of that moment today. Where we fell in love. Where utter joy consumed me. Right there people were murdered and injured indiscriminately. Today people mourn the loss of their loved ones. A city is shocked and a little more fearful.
I added my heart taken photograph to the news of the terror attack and added a prayer. All in sixteen lines...
I caught her face at Westminster Bridge
My heart lit up, my soul shone
I reached for her hand, our laugh burst
We built the rest of our blessed lives on
London, you’re where I fell in love
Now you’ve fallen and lie bleeding
In the devil’s miracle of our fallenness
May you find what we all our needing.
Today, I remember London
And I offer up a prayer
For grace's interruption
God’s comforting repair
Let’s stop all this hatred
For this hate I’ve had enough
London, be still and know
The indiscriminate power of love.
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