Weekly Update – 1st October
“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers”… (LM Montgomery)
You may remember from a previous newsletter that I was under the impression that I’m not really keen on change, but I keep finding exceptions that prove my rule (maybe my rule is wrong?)
Here’s another one … I LOVE the change of seasons, between each season, but particularly as we go into Autumn.
I love the colours of Autumn, the smell of the air, the crisp bright mornings that can be replaced by a dull, damp, murky afternoon, with wind and rain through the evening so you wake up to another bright crisp morning. The leaves twirling and dancing as they’re blown by the wind (I spent a happy 5 mins earlier in the week chasing ‘helicopter’ seeds during my lunch hour, much to my colleague’s amusement/embarrassment).
I think it’s the unpredictability of Autumn that appeals…’fail to plan, plan to fail’….who said that? But for a day out in Autumn planning is ‘take everything’: It might rain (umbrella/wellies), it may be cold (warm coat/hat), sun might come out (hat/sunglasses). Well, that’s the rule for when you’re responsible for others, but when it’s just me…..I get wet often!!
The Bible talks about the changing of seasons, Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, is probably the most quoted, but seasons and their effect are mentioned throughout: Genesis, Daniel, Psalms, Matthew, Isaiah and more.
I like verse 11 of Ecclesiastes 3: ‘He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.’
‘He has made everything beautiful in its time’
That time is now. So stop, take a breath, admire the autumn colours, marvel at the sky, look in the mirror, and see the beauty that God has created. What a loss to us, if we don’t take time to cherish his creation.
The felling of the Sycamore Gap Tree is incomprehensible, but experts are already gathering up seeds, and are hopeful that the stump could grow new shoots by next spring. ‘He has made everything beautiful in its time’. Sometimes you have to redefine what you think of as beautiful.
Jenny
Churchwarden