Daily Devotion by Michael Hopkins

Perhaps you have been on the London Eye?  You may well have seen it, or a picture of it.  It looks like a giant ferris wheel, rising to 450 feet above the ground.  There are thirty-two capsules, each taking up to twenty people.  It takes about half an hour to rotate, so slow that it almost looks, from a distance, like it isn’t moving.  From it, on a clear day, there is an amazing view of all the landmarks and historic buildings and spaces of London (and all the rubbish, too); and the Eye itself is a wonderful view.

The point that I want to make is that the letter to the Ephesians is to to the rest of Paul’s (we’ll call the author that, whoever you think it was) letters rather like the London Eye is to London.  Ephesians is not the longest letter, not the first letter, and nor is it fullest letter, but from the letter to the Ephesians we get an awe-inspiring view of all the features of the letters, all the themes of the earliest Christian tradition in turn: God, Jesus, the Church, the world, salvation, how Christians should behave, and so on.

So, before we travel through this letter in coming days, pause and take stock of the landscape, and as you do ponder a faithful God, a loving heavenly Father, a God who came close to us in Jesus and lifts us closer to himself and adopts us as part of the Christian family.  As you ponder these things, hold them before God until you are ready to pray.