As we draw nearer to spring we may be looking forward to digging in the garden or going out for a walk or sitting out in the sunshine, chatting with a friend or walking the dog. If we think about it there will be many more people in the world unable to do any of the above. It is a fact of life that when you are young you run around outside not worrying at all about anything but the moment you are in. Planning does not have any meaning, Planning is what your parents do. “We can all remember a time of childhood when a bird’s nest or a seashell filled us with awe and delight. This is because young children are not very reflective: they don’t live in their minds. Their senses are alive and alert to every experience.” says Joy Cowley Do you keep a diary? If you read my diary it would be a bit boring as I am down to making lists, writing about all the mundane things in my life like remembering to pay this and pay that on a certain day. I also have a calendar that I write appointments and meetings I have to attend on a specific day. That is thought of as a bit old fashioned these days. Some things on my list are must do’s. The calendar hangs in the kitchen so that I can look at it when I am preparing meals or cleaning. It also helps in my planning for the month.
In Jesus day there was no such luxury as a diary or a calendar. You had to remember everything and even though Jesus was a learned scholar he must have had an amazing memory for times, places and people. Jesus also prayed to his heavenly father when he needed help and he encouraged those who gathered around him to do the same. Mathew 7: 7- 117 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.9 “Which of you, if your children ask for bread, will give them a stone? 10 Or if they ask for a fish, will give them a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?” Joy Cowley says “but prayers of the senses are not confined to church.” “Haven’t we all experienced something sacred in the taste of a freshly picked strawberry warm with the sun? A cold beer on a hot day, or hot soup on a cold night, can bring us to the same place.” We have so many distractions these days and it is hard to take time to have a real conversation with God. Being alone and overthinking things; brings its own pressures. We need to take time to have a quiet time with no distractions. No TV, no Phone just listening to our own breath and inviting the spirit of God to fill us. A morning prayer of gratitude can set us up for the day ahead. It is an exercise for our own wellbeing and for that of others who are finding life difficult. A forgiveness prayer can also release a tension and as Jesus says we have to keep on forgiving again and again. You can’t experience the goodness of God’s forgiveness unless you also forgive others. We receive from God the generosity of his forgiveness – like breathing in. We are to pass that forgiveness on to others – like breathing out. In that process there is life and relationships are restored. It does not always happen straight away but it will happen.
“How many times, after I had sinned, you comforted me, as a good father, and you kissed me warmly as a son or a daughter, and you stretched out your arms to me and cried out: rise up, fear not, stand up, come! Amen.” Excerpt from a prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ, St John of Damascus, 7th-8th century.
Andrew Howley, August 2023