Revd Helen Writes …

 

  So much changed in the Covid years that, for many, our pre-covid lives now seem like another life-time. A time when life was more predictable, more comfortable, a time when the weather still had seasons and, mostly, we knew what it might be going to do.

 

  However, since we regained our freedom, new worries and more concerns have begun to emerge. This year we didn’t have to travel to find warmer weather. It came to us and has stayed with us. The hottest day so far this year was in July at 38.1 degrees. I am writing this in 32 degrees in August. Our beautiful garden is looking very much the worse for wear, the lawn is brown and crackles when you walk on it. The plants are struggling and setting seed early, the trees are dropping their leaves and the bracken is going brown. It has not rained since for almost 60 days and then hardly at all. Only the North has no hosepipe bans and we are all trying not to use more water than we have to. Those of us who can remember the drought of 1976 hope it doesn’t come to standpipes again.

 

  And as if that wasn’t enough to worry us, we hear that the price of what meagre water is left after the terrible fires will have to go up and that other bills may too. On top of that there are knife-edge situations in an increasing number of places in the world that are profoundly worrying and suddenly we don’t seem to be getting back to live in normal circumstances after all. On so many fronts, the news seems to grow worse and more shocking. There is so much to concern us, so much that is wrong. And solutions seem so hard to find.

 

  Jesus said to the crowds who came to listen to him;

            When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, “It is going to rain”; and so it

            happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, “There will be scorching heat”;

            and it happens. You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you

            not know how to interpret the present time?

 

  How very apt. The words sound as if they could have been written for today. Jesus was of course speaking of the weather in Palestine and in normal circumstances that weather there would have been rather hotter and considerably less changeable than ours. In normal circumstances we spend quite a lot of time in trying to guess what the weather will be, checking forecasts, spotting grey clouds coming over that might bring rain to interrupt an event, and being pleased when blue sky and sunshine make a sudden appearance.

 

  But these are not normal conditions. It seems as if things are going wrong and that perhaps we should all have listened, at least twenty years ago, to those who warned of climate change and global warming. In so many areas such a lot is at stake. But Jesus tells us constantly of God’s amazing and total love for us. Just one example:

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In Matthew chapter 10 he says;

             Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground unnoticed by

             your Father. Even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more

             value than many sparrows.

 

  Faith in God does not do away with the pains and struggles of life. What it does do is help us to meet them with courage and hope. Nothing can alter what is past - we are stuck with it. All we can do is to try to find ways of making the future better than it might have been. And perhaps to take some comfort from the fact that we are still here and our heads still seem to be just above the water.

 

  Dear Lord Jesus, guide us through all the dangers of this present age. And help us to spot the opportunities where we can act wisely to do any small thing we can to help mend this troubled world.

  With love and prayers.

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  Helen Kempster