It's the Light

This far north, it’s all about the light.

As spring begins to burst forth in colours – the purples and golden hues of crocus, the mellower yellows of daffodils and the pure white of snowdrops – as it begins to burst forth in sound – the increase in birdsong is just amazing as they all seek out a mate for the year – as it begins to show itself in rising temperatures (except at night) – still, the best thing about the turning of the year towards summer is the return of the light.

Longer days. We’ve not shifted clocks around yet but already I’ve missed the dawn when I walk the dog and I can walk her again at 5.30 or 6 and it is still light. 

And it’s not just light. It’s the quality of the light. There is a golden hue to it somehow, a palpably refreshing tangibility to it which is hard to explain. Maybe it’s because we are emerging from the darkness, where there is a monotony of black and bleak.

Jesus declared himself the light of the world. He himself is light. Without him is only darkness.

Who would choose to live without him?

Glass Half Full

Life’s events can sometimes seem to overtake us, with worries multiplying like rabbits and responsibilities weighing us down. 

Perspective, my dad used to advise. Keep it all in perspective.

Two people can look at the same situation and one sees a half-empty glass while the other sees a half-full glass. Who are you?

The Bible gives good counsel on how to look at life. ‘Don’t worry about anything,’ Paul wrote. ‘Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.’

Thank him for all he has done. What a liberating action that is, because as you mentally revise all he has done, your faith for the future rises and the half-empty glass begins to look half full. 

And what happens when you thank him for all he has done?

‘Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.’ 

Those verses from chapter 4 of Philippians are among my Bible favourites. They are so encouraging, and as you begin to discipline yourself to practice the advice, you find your mood and outlook lifting and the whole perspective shifts. 

You can move from feeling like a victim of life’s circumstances to feeling like a victor, not on your own but with Jesus standing in there with you. 

After you’ve thanked God for everything you can think of (takes a long time if you’re serious about this, and is pretty humbling to recognise so much blessing in your life), Paul goes on to advise what your mind should focus on, and it isn’t your past, or your worries, or the future. It’s on good things, true, honourable, right and pure and lovely – thinking about excellent things raises your perspective another degree or ten.

My glass is more than half full. How about yours?

The Promise of Spring

The sky is blue, with a warm sun beaming down on the northeast of Scotland. Crocus and snowdrops splash their colour amongst the green verges; one or two trees are in blossom.

Spring is on its way.

And yet...

Early this morning, before the sun was properly in place over the country, the temperature was below freezing and there was ice on the roads. And on that ice, one of my dear daughters-in-law skidded her car, landing on its roof in the field. 

Mercifully, God was riding in the car with her, and she emerged without a scratch, much to the paramedics’ amazement. 

God can do more than we ask or imagine.

Is it coincidence that her husband, Jamie, our eldest son, is en route to Africa for a two week stint of work bringing development and conflict resolution to some deprived and unquiet areas? You may draw different conclusions; I know many Christians who don’t really believe in the activity of an enemy in the world, but I know what I think. The enemy is a liar and a deceiver and also a destroyer, and he does whatever he can to subvert the growth of God’s kingdom in the world.

God is loving and merciful, and his ways are mysterious. He doesn’t always protect believers from the consequences of living in this world, but whatever happens, he is always in the car with them. 

Praise Him that this morning, Jesus sat taller than Chrisie did in the front seat, and absorbed the impact on the roof himself. 

He took the hit so she could walk free.

Same thing he did on Calvary. Praise Him!

Spring is indeed on the way.

Turbulence

The wind is living up to its March-reputation today. It is whining and howling round the house, slamming doors and rattling windows and being a general pain. 

I don’t like the wind. 

It seems relentless as it blows. It can come in wild bursts or blow steady and strong. Don’t like either. It can break off branches, or pick up debris and fling it into your face or onto your head. For contact lens wearers, the dust is a menace. 

It can bring down telephone wires and disconnect communication channels. Someone in our area has been waiting for 6 weeks for the company to re-connect him after the last big blow.

It’s the unpredictability I hate, and the fact that I can see few redeeming features to its activity. Oh I know globally it does the whole weather thing, but here, in my garden, it does nothing but tear down and spoil things.

Every morning I pray that the Lord will enable me to handle all that comes my way, a surprise or expected, with grace and love, trusting that he has allowed it to touch me for some reason. Today I have felt blown about in more ways than just by the wind outside. 

Nothing horrendous, but lots of medium-sized niggles. Anxieties about family. Concern for health. That wearing back pain. Mistakes and criticisms. Work to be done which I had intended to do this morning, but my day has been hijacked and it will not get seen to today. 

Through my mind has just flashed a song which was popular in prayer groups when I was first born again. ‘Wind, wind, blow on me....set me free...the blessed Holy Spirit.’ How I loved that chorus. I loved singing, ‘wind, wind, blow on me’! Funny, when my feelings for the wind are not so positive.

The Holy Spirit is likened to the wind. Unpredictable. Blows where he will. Can’t be pinned down. 

Some Christians don’t really ‘do’ the Holy Spirit. His activity was for the early church, they may say. Now we have the Bible we don’t need his constant intervention and activity. To my mind, experience, and the way I read the Bible, they are turning away from an important aspect of God.

I wonder if this aversion to the Holy Spirit is like mine to the physical wind. Folk like to be in control. They don’t like something to happen in church (or anywhere else perhaps) which wasn’t allocated a time-slot for, which doesn’t seem quite normal, which has no explanation and may feel like it has no end. 

The thing about the Holy Spirit is he is God, an integral part of the trinity, and as such, he is love and nothing will happen which he hasn’t allowed. The wind of the Spirit may seem wild and out of control, but it isn’t. Out of our control, perhaps; not outside of God’s.

And neither is the wind blowing outside my door. So off I go to walk Dusty again...

Downwardly Mobile Swans

Dusty and I circled round the back of the woods and began to head towards the road. Behind me, in the air, I heard a beating sound, like the sound of bellows blowing wind into a stubborn fire. I looked back.

Two swans descended in tandem, tracing a gracious circle in the air before disappearing from my view. I knew where they went.

The local laird dredged out a ‘duck pond’ – complete with shooting ‘hides’ – several years ago for his own private use. I’ve not seen him or the game keeper there for a long time but that’s not to say they don’t still come and shoot wild ducks in season. 

My swans floated on the surface of the pond, nibbling at pond weed, graceful necks twisting and turning. There is a pair of breeding swans at a garden centre pond a few miles away, and I wondered if these two were having a day out from there. 

In the UK, only royalty can eat swans, by law. I would imagine that confers a certain protection on them, so that they can land on duck ponds with impunity, without fear of being shot. By extension, perhaps their very presence on the pond affords a protection to any ducks which might otherwise be the target for the laird’s table.

Graceful, royal birds protecting ugly ducklings just by their presence.

It reminds me of Jesus, who left behind his glory in heaven to take on the ugly duckling garb of humanity, only to rise to everlasting life. His identification with us gives us a protection from the enemy whose aim it is to destroy us. Staying near to Jesus is similar to a duck staying near to a swan. 

And the other thing about Jesus which I see in this rather goofy analogy, is that though we are all ugly ducklings now, because of his sacrifice for us, we shall one day be swans, full of grace and beauty. 

All because of Jesus.