Vicar's Blog - A moment in time by Colin Such
Posted 1/5/2017 4:41:46 PM
Glimpses of God in a moment
I only ever hear parts of “Something understood” on Radio 4 on a Sunday morning. I’m letting the dog out and getting myself ready for church with a cup of coffee by then. But as I wander around picking up all the things I need to take with me, thinking through my sermon as I potter around and checking my diary for any notes I may have made I hear snatches of the programme.
And amongst this bleary eyed activity the occasional phrase or thought will ring out. And so it was on New Year’s Day that a short passage struck me just before I turned the radio off. The thought was simply this: that we often seek for God by looking at monuments, edifices and ancient rituals whereas perhaps God is to be found in the fleeting and the transient – the “Burning Bush” moment. And so the thought continued in the back of my mind (and still does) that perhaps in the everyday there are moments where we turn aside for a moment and in that instant glimpse something of God. If this is so then we are reminded of the warning given to Moses – the ground upon which you are standing is holy ground – holy not because it is holy in itself but because there in that instant we meet with the living God. There are many moments each day as I walk the dog that I glimpse God; the sunlight on the water of the lake or glinting on the drops falling from geese as they take off, the frost on a leaf or the singing of a bird. Each of these experiences reveals a glimpse of God, a moment of eternity frozen in time.
A reminder too of the wonder of Christmas Eve and the start of the midnight service:
Welcome all wonders in one sight!
Eternity shut in a span.
Summer in winter, Day in night,
Heaven in earth, and God in man.
Great little one whose all-embracing birth
Brings earth to heaven, stoops heaven to earth.
It’s a reminder too that I am always in the presence of God – it’s just that too often I’m too busy to notice!