Weekly Update – 26th October

“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers”  – Anne Shirley, Anne of Green Gables

My favourite book, tells the story of Anne Shirley, an orphaned girl mistakenly sent to live with siblings Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert in Avonlea on Prince Edward Island (they wanted a boy to help with chores around their farm, Green Gables).

Anne is imaginative; impulsive; fiercely loyal to her friends; and a child, so makes mistakes; questions everything and gets herself into a fair few scrapes.

Every year, when the trees change colour, I think of Anne, and her joy and wonder expressed in the quote above and reach for the book to read again.

Seb said something in a service a few months ago that has really stuck with me – ‘We may be the only bible that someone else reads!’. (Thanks Seb, I can’t shrug that, it rattles round in my head constantly).

We are the example. As Christians, we are called to be the hands and feet of God in our World. This means showing love, kindness and support to others, just as Jesus did.

But there’s no need to feel overwhelmed; for starters, it’s not just us (well it is, but there’s lots of ‘us’ it’s not one of us on our own) (I’m not sure that sentence makes much sense – sorry!).

We have God, Jesus’ example, the Bible and our church family to draw strength and guidance from.

And, if we open our eyes and look, examples throughout literature.

 

In Green Gables, life revolves around the local church. Anne’s guardians take it for granted that she’ll conform and they try to mold her to their ways and practices. It doesn’t go too well.

Prayer, and how and when to pray, is the most obvious example. Marilla is shocked that Anne doesn’t know to kneel and say her prayers at bedtime, Anne believes that if she wanted to pray, she would find a field, look at the sky and just feel a prayer (spoiler alert – she doesn’t want to pray as she blames God for giving her red hair!!).

But given time, as Anne lives alongside and gets to know older Christians, she develops an understanding of Christianity that’s entirely her own instead of one that’s imposed. She forms her own relationship with God. By the end of the book, she prays with gratitude.

The Bible encourages us to share the good news of Christ with others; I find that a difficult to conversation to start. But much like in the book (it’s all very genteel and subtle – it’s taken me 40 years to fully notice) by living our life in Christ, by being an example, by letting people go on their own journey, not forcing them on the same route as us but by being companions on theirs, we too can be instrumental in leading others towards a deeper relationship with God.

Amen

Jenny