New life has certainly sprung into being in the past week. The trees around our house have gone from bare branches with barely any buds showing, to semi full cover as the fresh leaves emerge. The welcome rain will no doubt see a new flurry of weeds too in the next week or two.
The beauty and fullness of Spring is evident in reality and/or online in all its newness, freshness and smile awakening. Many of us find delight in the sights and sounds of the time of year, and it is no coincidence that there are many similes with the Easter story. Things that appeared to be dead have found new life, and prompt us to reflect on the life of Christ and maybe our own, reminding us of hope for whatever the future may hold.
This may seem more to the fore of our thinking this year as we find ourselves unable to follow the patterns of previous years. We are given a time to stand back from our every day and every year habits. We have opportunities to reconsider things which perhaps we felt were secure traditions. Those of us living in ones and twos probably have space to reflect, to meditate and to ponder; to consider what are the things which are most important to us; how do we practice our faith; does the absence of physical church going alter the ways that we think about worship. What will be the long term impacts on the ways we live? Are there new patterns which are more effective in caring for one another and creation?
A few weeks ago my youngest granddaughter was invited on a visit to a farm shop to go and see the sheep and lambs in the field behind the shop. This would have been her first close encounter with sheep and lambs. She is confident with the chickens and guinea pig which live in her garden, but even lambs are much bigger. She is quite a confident two year old, and enjoyed the experience; there is something approaching magic in first encounters. To see things with the eyes of a child. I wonder how many of us still see things this way? My own experience, working with children, was sharing the joy and excitement of familiar, many times repeated lessons with those doing something for the first time. I was never disappointed.
It has struck me in recent days that unexpected experiences often lead to times of reflection. It seems as if it is necessary to come to terms, to reconsider what happened, to learn, so that new knowledge may be applied in some other circumstance. Some of us have at least elements of reflection time now. For others with more immediate day to day survival challenges it may be in a while. I hope there will be new discoveries of old truths, and fresh ways of seeing and sharing for the benefit of all.
