What do you see?

Sea breeze on my face.

See the barren castle at death's door

battered by the crashing waves?

Forlorn, hope rescinded.

Now bird's-eye view through the clouds:

patchwork quilt, green and calm.

Trusty steed, onward we go

through the night, Mercy's flight.

Deliver your charge to Journey's End,

my beautiful friend.

Lift up a fallen heart,

Courage impart,

Grace imbue,

Life be given.

Light for the next step.

Yes, you are not forgotten.

Life's airy veil blows thin,

now fresh, not dank,

light not heavy.

Eyes restored to fly again.

"Let not your hearts be troubled.

You believe in God, believe also in me."

Quote taken from the words of Jesus to his disciples in the Bible, book of John: chapter 14, verse 1.

It's all about love

Yes, animals do love each other. Exactly how much I don't know, but I have seen guinea pigs and chickens alike pine when they lose a companion, and when I have to separate one of our chicks from her mother I can bear the scars on my hand for quite a while! God's love, though, is in a different league. I have been a Christian for 50 years mainly because I have found God to be loving and good. King David had the same experience thousands of years ago (Psalm 62:11,12). In fact the whole Bible is a story about God's largely unrequited love for us and what he has done to woo us. He made us in the first place because he wanted someone to love and someone to love him. He wanted to take the risk of allowing someone made in his own image completely free will to love him or not. He made the Earth and the wider universe largely for us to enjoy, and even planted us a special garden at Eden. Everything was set for a wonderful relationship.

Then, of course, it all went wrong: Adam and Eve decided to disobey God. God was distraught. The Old Testament tells us a lot about what he then did to try to bring us back to him. He showed his love to Noah by saving him and his family from the flood; he showed his love to Israel, by freeing them from slavery in Egypt. Time and again he expressed his compassion for his people and had periods of great success in persuading them to worship him alone, but repeatedly they fell back into evil ways. Eventually he realized that he had to do something drastic to make the point and decided to send them into exile for a while and later bring a remnant of the nation back home. Yet this was a desperately difficult decision for him and he told his prophet Hosea about his turmoil: "How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor devastate Ephraim again. For I am God, not man - the Holy One among you - I will not come in wrath." (Hosea 11:8,9)

Throughout the Bible God expressed his all consuming love for people, and he continues to do the same today.

Eventually, God sent his own son, Jesus, to live with us and talk to us personally. While he lived on Earth, Jesus vocalized the love that he had always had for his people: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing." (Matthew 23:37,38) The ultimate demonstration of God's love, though, was when Jesus was crucified to take responsibility for our wrongdoing. Being crucified would have been an agonizing enough death in itself, without at the same time being separated from his Father and the Holy Spirit, who could not associate with him while he took our guilt upon himself. Until then, he had never been separated from them (John 8:29). Jesus did this willingly because of the love that he had always had for us, but he still had to make the desperately difficult decision to go through with it when the day came (Mark 14:32-42) - yet he did, because love overcame all.

Once we give our lives to Jesus, we find that his love carries on and on and on today as it did through Biblical times. His Holy Spirit is always with us to comfort and guide us. If we wander off from him again, then he does everything that he can to bring us back. If we stay with him, then learning to rest in his company is the most fulfilling thing that a human can ever find to do. After all, that is why he made us.

I woke you up this morning

I woke you up this morning and was so excited. I'd got the sun up a bit earlier and roused the birds so that they could greet you as well. Last night I'd sent some bats to play in your garden and you found that amusing, but didn't realize I was behind their visit. That's OK. It is - it's OK. You were tired - I know. This morning, though, I hoped that the sunshine and birdsong would remind you of me, but you just got on with your day. So I sent you two deer, running past your front door just when you were opening it. You thought that was amazing - and said so - but that was it! At lunchtime you ate those delicious salad leaves that I'd caused to grow from seeds in your greenhouse. You must admit that cut straight from the plant to put on your plate they were something special! Yes, I know you did, because you told your wife; but you didn't tell me.

As night fell this evening, I decided to paint you a colour picture in the clouds and slowly turn it into a black and white star scene with Venus centre stage. Isn't Venus tremendous at the moment, so bright that you can see your own shadow by its light? I think so: it was one of my special designs. I'm sure that you do too, because I've seen you looking at your shadow and smiling. Yet you just smiled. And I was disappointed.

At bedtime it occurred to you that you had not spoken to me today, but you said that's alright because you can always pray tomorrow. It might have felt OK for you to go through one of your days without me, but it wasn't OK for me! I don't ever want to live one of my days without you.