One more step along the world I go

It's one of my favourite modern hymns: One more step along the world I go, One more step along the world I go. From the old things to the new, keep me travelling along with you. I come across it being requested for all sorts of services and events.

In baptism services it sums up well the journey of faith that a child, parents and godparents, are embarking on. ‘You are older than the world can be, you are younger than the life in me. Ever old and ever new, keep me travelling along with you.’

As wedding season starts I find couples asking for this hymn too. It speaks of making a commitment to each other, and a new journey ahead as one unity instead of two individuals, with God joining them and strengthening them on the way. In marriage we need God’s help and guidance: ‘As I travel through the bad and good, keep me travelling the way I should. Where I see no way to go, you'll be telling me the way, I know.’

Not so many people choose this for their funeral service, although the words are appropriate: ‘Give me courage when the world is rough, keep me loving though the world is tough. Keep me travelling along with you.’ Maybe I’ll choose it for my funeral one day?

As we see our curate, Jacky Wise, heading out to Melanesia with Mimi, our prayers go with them – that they will be richly blessed by the experience and the people they meet, and that they will be a blessing to them too. ‘Round the corners of the world I turn, more and more about the world I learn. All the new things that I see, you'll be looking at along with me.’

And it won't be long after Jacky’s return before they will be off to minister in Heswall Parish. They go with our thanks for all Jacky has given us, and our blessings go with her and the family for all that lies ahead on the journey of faith.

For Jacky and for all of us on our Christian pilgrimage, our prayer to God is the same: it's from the old I travel to the new, keep me travelling along with you. Amen.