Sunday Letter

July 19^th 2020

Dear Friends

Transformation

This week as I was driving down into town, as I stopped at the “Tesco” roundabout I noticed the very colourful sign saying “Chard Carnival Oct 10^th” I commented to Jason that I thought the carnival was cancelled this year, yes, it is, so the sign I asked? It has been there for a year he replied. I can truly say I had never noticed it before. Do I go around with my eyes closed, well no, and I do take some pride in noticing things small details in daily life. I know, pride comes before a fall.

So how come I have not noticed this very colourful sign before, I think it must be because of the roundabout. Usually I am driving and thinking, trying not to go before it is okay, where am I heading and what does the day hold, a bigger picture, which means I have missed the detail of the smaller picture. It reminds me of being in “Kairos time and not chronological time, something which I am quite bad at. Lockdown has meant there has been more Kairos, being in the moment time, time to reflect more, to stop and dilly dally in the sunshine or the rain, time to ponder on the flowers and on what God is doing in this time.

And the significance of what is going on changes, often without us noticing. Take Jacob who laid down to sleep, he took a stone to lay his head upon, something which people across Middle Asia still do today. But the stone he takes is a straight forward right shaped ordinary stone. While he sleeps, he dreams and God shows him that the land on which he lies is to become his and his ancestors. God says to him: Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. Wow Jacob wakes up in fear and awesomeness his whole perception of the stone, the place, and his life, changed in the night in the encounter with God. He takes that stone anoints it with oil and sets it on a pillar and names the place Bethel. Small moments in our lives are places that God can use to engage with us, change us, to transform us, encountering God in the up’s and downs, the turmoil of what, where and how, of this week. In the uncertainty, the trepidation of going on, or not, let each of us be attentive to God’s voice in all things.

I found this quote: “In three words, I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.”

American poet Robert Frost, +1963

It goes on let our lives be travelled onwards holding the hand of our maker.

Rev Georgina