Autumn is here by Colin Such
Posted 9/30/2017 10:17:26 AM
One thing I missed during my time without dogs was the daily walk around the Lime Pits. It may be a little daunting when it is cold and wet but the most of the time I can enjoy a gentle walk in an ever changing landscape.
At the moment the leaves are all turning and the path around the lake is transformed into a mass of golden colours. Of course for the dogs it is all new and every leaf blowing in the wind is an adventure to be explored our walks can take some time at the moment – goodness knows what will happen if it snows this winter!
For me, of course, I’ve seen it many times – this month will see the thirteenth anniversary of my arrival as vicar of Rushall. And yet each time I walk around the lake there is
something to stop and look at, to wonder at and to rediscover
just how beautiful it is, from the golden leaves of the beech trees and the bright red rosehips, to the various browns of mushrooms and the glistening light dancing on a frosty spider’s web.
Sometimes we can be so busy that we fail to look at what is around us, we can be so familiar with the walk that we no longer reflect on the wonders we pass by. The same can be true of our faith, we can be so familiar with the words of the hymns and the liturgy that we no longer reflect on the mystery and wonders that they convey.
At the moment several of our church members (some new and others who have come to church for years) are undertaking the Pilgrim Course. In it we are stopping to look more closely at things that some of us perhaps take for granted and so forget to marvel at. We will learn that reading the Bible and talking to fellow Christians is important but to understand Jesus we have to walk with him. We will learn that God loves us with a love more than we can ever imagine or understand; that Jesus confounds all of our expectations; that the Holy Spirit is working in and through our lives today; that we are invited to turn our lives around and follow him and finally that we all need God’s forgiveness and that it is so easy for any of us to fall short.
All of these things we know and yet can forget to really think about how wonderful it is.
There is always something new to learn about God’s love for us and for the world, there are always new insights and new inspirations, which is why I love our Parish Pilgrimages (there are still some places available on next year’s trip to Sicily).
But just as exiting and just as wonderful are the things we learned perhaps long ago, the love of God that sent his Son into the world for you and for me and that invites us each day to walk with him.
As the leaves turn to gold in the weeks ahead they will remind me at least of the love that transforms the world and is waiting to transform us too.
Colin