Dear Friends,
I travel around the lanes a lot to and from my 3 parishes and the other day as I was driving along the shape of the landscape really struck me. We take so much for granted, the rolling hills, wooded valleys slopes and lush green horizons. But what particularly struck me as I was driving along a lane I don’t usually travel on was the actual contours of the land, the ups and down of the fields. One minute it looks like a flat field and then the field dips down to a small valley or just curves away into the distance. It set me thinking whether we really appreciate the environment in which we live. I know that I take for granted these rolling fields, the different shades and the changing colours. We live in a part of the country which is beautiful where our eyes can travel over so much of interest. We don’t have large endless flat plains that stretch into the distances but a patchwork of colour and shape.
As I mused on the countryside it set me thinking about life itself, life is a patchwork of colour and shape, we have our ups and downs, we have changes of mood as we have changes of seasons, we are affected by the climate just as the land is. But there is a constant in all of this; we have God’s love which was brought to us though the life and death of Jesus Christ which is a constant. That love never changes and is with us though all the ups and downs of life as well as all the changing circumstances, whether we are aware of it or not.
The seasons are changing again, the lovely weather of late summer is drawing to an end, the evenings are closing in, the hours of light are shortened and reduces our time to admire our countryside, but we know that as the winter closes in eventually spring will open out bringing light bright days. We have the hope of fresh beginnings once more. That is of course the cycle of the natural life and also the cycle of our lives, if you like, it is the contours of our lives just like the contours of the countryside. Through all the changing contours of our lives God’s love surrounds us and keeps us going, seasons change but His love doesn’t and wherever the changes of our lives lead us and whether we feel we are in a dark season, there is always hope of the brightness of a changing season or something else over the hill.
Every blessing, Rev Cate
PS Confirmation classes are starting soon if anyone is interested please contact me.
