God who is Present in each Moment…

This is a poem I have been reading and pondering through Lent.

I shared it with a group of people from church recently. We talked about it and used it for our prayers. They were all in their 80s, and they all talked about learning to take time to be ‘mindful’ in life – to pause and acknowledge that God is present in each moment of our lives.

The Bright Field by R.S. Thomas

I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the
pearl of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realise now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

The theologian, Paula Gooder, uses this poem in her book, ‘Everyday God’, which picks up the theme of God in ordinary life, and is a helpful and very readable book.

PS I am just back from a retreat which was led by Paula Gooder, and was excellent. More of that in another post…

A Poem to Ponder

I came across this poem recently, and it has stayed with me.

I thought you might like to discover it too.

THE LAST ENEMY
by Stuart Henderson

And He Who each day
reveals a new masterpiece in the sky
and Whose joy
can be seen in the eyelashes of a child
Who when he hears of our smug indifference
can whisper an ocean lashing fury
and talk tigers into padding roars.
This my God
Whose breath is in the wings of eagles
Whose power is etched in the crags of mountains
It is When I will meet
in Whose Presence I will find tulips and clouds
Kneeling martyrs and trees
the whole vast praising of his endless creation
and he will grant the uniqueness
that eluded me
in my earthly bartering with Satan
That day when He will erase the painful gasps of my ego
and I will sink my face into the wonder of his glory love
and I will watch planets converse with sparrows
On that day
when death is finally dead

A Japanese Zen Garden

I have been enjoying looking at pictures of Japanese dry landscape gardens, also known as Zen gardens. The varying combinations of circles and lines in their designs would work well as quilting patterns.

I am starting to work on that idea…more to follow…watch this space in a week or two.

An Encounter with the Police

 

I was pulled over by the police this morning in a village near home. Two cars with blue lights flashing surrounded me and 3 officers came up to the car when I stopped. They said that my number plate had shown up as a stolen car.

They then realised that it should be a fast Audi…

 and not an elderly Land Rover…

After checking over the car, they asked for ID, and all got very embarrassed when they saw I was a vicar.

They were then more embarrassed to discover that the number recognition software had read an 8 as a 6 on the numberplate (i.e. their detector has number dyslexia).

They waved me off saying, ‘well, it will be a good sermon story…’