Thought for the Day - Thursday 11 June

Thought for the Day – Thursday 11^th June

‘There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.’ (Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8)

Time!

This is the time of a global pandemic and there seems to be so much time during this period of ‘Lockdown’. Time can dominate our thoughts and unsettle us; we can feel there is too much time in our day or perhaps if we are trying to keep to routines and schedules, as we are encouraged to do, we may feel there is too little of it. We dwell on how much longer we will be required to stay in ‘Lockdown’ and we dream of how we will fill our time when we are once more allowed out of ‘Lockdown’ and able to mix with our family, friends and others. Recently on my pastoral calls so many of you are saying that now when you are out and about among folk you no longer feel comfortable or safe and you wish to return as quickly as possible to the security of your own home and as a result take as little time as possible to do what you have to do.  

Our text today reminds us that there is a time for everything and while we may feel as we do now in this time of uncertainty, there will come a time for us when things will be different – perhaps not the same as before – just different. The time will come when we can heal, when we can build up our community once more and build each other up again, when we will feel like laughing and dancing more, when we will all gather together once again and embrace each other warmly and sincerely, when we will take time to mend.

However, for now in this time of having to give up so much, of having to keep to the rules, of having to fill our time in ways we perhaps never did before, of not doubt having to keep silent a little more often and of missing speaking with others, we have to remember God’s promise that he is with us at all times, his spirit is around us and within us, we are loved by God who has all time in his hands and wants to bring us peace in our lives.

We will get through this time!

I thought I would encourage you to have a sing today to remind you of this. Hymn 727 in our hymnbook is a ‘Hymn of Promise’ and you can sing it to a whole variety of familiar tunes like, ‘Ode to Joy’,  ‘Courage Brother do not stumble’ ‘Love divine, all loves excelling’, ‘Jesus calls us o’er the tumult’, even to ‘What a friend we have in Jesus’. So go on have a sing today:

In the bulb there is a flower;
in the seed, an apple tree;
in cocoons, a hidden promise:
butterflies will soon be free!
In the cold and snow of winter
there's a spring that waits to be,
unrevealed until its season,
something God alone can see.

There's a song in every silence,
seeking word and melody.
There's a dawn in every darkness
bringing hope to you and me.
From the past will come the future;
what it holds, a mystery,
unrevealed until its season,
something God alone can see.

In our end is our beginning;
in our time, infinity;
in our doubt there is believing;
in our life, eternity.
In our death, a resurrection;
at the last, a victory,
unrevealed until its season,
something God alone can see.            © Hope Publishing Company 1986

Prayer

Loving God,  

You who are ageless, who created time and who rules over its every passing moment, be near us at this time and fill us with your Spirit that we might look ahead not with feelings of dread or fear or anxiety but rather with hope in our hearts and with excitement and anticipation for what you have yet to reveal. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen