From the Manse: Easter 2007
“Dear Friends,
Where does the time go to? As I type this, it is Shrove Tuesday and it doesn’t seem any time at all since last Shrove Tuesday. They say there are only two certainties in this life — death and taxes. I would like to suggest two others. The first is that time never stands still. It rushes on and on. We know that when things aren’t going well, time can seem to drag and when we’re having a good time, it goes even faster than usual. There is so much to do in life that I often wish I could stop time or get an extra day or two in the week but I find comfort in the words of scripture which remind us that to God, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years as a day. This means He has time to see every tiny detail of every person, every day and yet he has a total overview of all of life. Indeed time like every other aspect of life was created by God for our good, so let’s make sure we find some to give back to him in thanks.
My second certainty is the love of God. God’s love doesn’t change. Have you ever met a child who has been badly hurt emotionally? When children have been badly treated by their carers, they often test out anyone else who tries to love them. They sometimes feel that they must be unlovable if their own family doesn’t love them so anyone else must be doing nice things for some twisted reason of their own. We had a foster child who took the other children’s Easter Eggs and ground them into the carpets and slashed their Christmas presents to pieces amongst other things.
I wonder how often we treat God like this. This world perhaps treats us badly and God comes to our aid but we don’t want to know. We don’t trust his motives. We think he must want something from us. We really don’t believe that his love for us is totally unconditional and never changes.
As we go through Lent we will be reminded again just how far he is prepared to go to show us that his love does not change — not in this time nor in eternity. May the knowledge of God’s love motivate us to use out time to re-evaluate our lives during Lent and empower us with the joy and strength of the Resurrection this Easter.”