For the last few days I have been out in the garden enjoying the beautiful warm spring sunshine and trying to make the garden look nice for the summer ahead (I am a fair-weather gardener!)
I love spring and early summer when the flowers and shrubs start to bloom again and burst with new growth. I particularly like the beautiful delicate acers of which we have a few in the garden. Some of them had suffered badly in the winter cold and strong winds and had lost branches which ,I thought, spoilt their shape. However, with their new leaves sprouting forth, they actually looked even better – different – but still beautiful.
It made stop and think about God’s wonderful design for the world and his Church. Times change, people come and go, and yet still, through all these changes, God is working his purpose out and using these changes to show us, that though the world and circumstances may be ‘different’, they are still beautiful and work for his glory.
We, at the Good Shepherd, are going through a period of change at this time, with Father Mick leaving and our new incumbent, Father Timothy Astin, joining us in June, bringing with him new talents and experiences of serving God to share with us. It will be good to have new insights and new ideas to take Good Shepherd into the future so that the church will continue to be a beacon for God for all our community to share. I am sure we will all welcome him and support him as he and his wife Moira settle into their new home.
Change can be the most difficult thing for humans at times, but it can also be the most rewarding. The disciples didn’t want change, they didn’t want Jesus crucified, they wanted him with them as before. But God showed them, through the wonderful Easter resurrection that we have just celebrated, that life, though different, was even more beautiful and fulfilling when he sent his gift of the Holy Spirit and with Jesus’ promise that he would be with them always.
And so it is with us – so let us embrace all that the future holds, knowing that God is with us and is working his purpose out through all the changing scenes of life. Let us allow him to work through us and with us.
God bless you all.
One last thought – it is important that we are all working together for the same goal:-
‘A new resident to the community was walking down a street and noticed a man struggling with a washing machine at the door of his house and he offered to help him. The man was delighted and the two of them began working on the bulky appliance, one from inside the house and one on the porch. After several minutes of fruitless effort, the two stopped and stared at each other in frustration. When they caught their breath the first man said, ‘We’ll never get this washing machine in here.’ to which the homeowner replied, ‘In? I’m trying to get it out.’