Thought for the Month
Join me each month as I ponder life with all the highs and lows we encounter along the way.
I hope you enjoy my blog whose aim is to raise a smile as well as give food for thought.
As always, I would love to hear from you, so please contact me 01278 781147 c.judson@btinternet.com
God bless you.
Rev Chris
October 2024 ‘The Harvest of our Lives’
Across our three rural parishes Harvest Celebrations happen through September and October, though ‘harvesting’ itself has a much wider span. It is a time and an activity that I greatly enjoy. Whether gathering in the reward of months of hard labours, or simply picking blackberries from the hedgerows and apples from the trees, there is something wonderful about harvesting and then sharing the spoils. This year the apple trees in the rectory have been productive, despite me! My sister helped while I balanced precariously on the stepladder to reach the fruit – and we particularly enjoyed using an old ‘apple picker’ passed down through generations – it was a great help and satisfying to use, though is in need of a little mending sometime soon. Having gathered most of the fruit, and left the squirrels, birds and insects a few for their gleaning, we then enjoyed delivering bags of apples to those we knew would use them. What a joy to receive back photos of the outcomes:
From the first to the last, the smallest to the positively ginormous, the Harvest Meals (Harvest Home, Harvest Lunch and Harvest Supper) are fabulous celebrations that draw our communities together to enjoy the wonders of the harvest and to share food and fun. Mindful, too, of those who are not able to celebrate the harvest, who are struggling to feed themselves and their families, we have been pleased to support various charities through this, including our local Highbridge Area Foodbank.
As we celebrated other things alongside – including a golden wedding anniversary (Many Congratulations to Sue and John!), it struck me that it is not just the harvest of the ground that we celebrate – but the harvest of our lives. I recently came across this excerpt from a poem entitled ‘The Harvest of Life’: ‘The seeds you’ve sown, in hearts and land, grow and flourish, a legacy so grand.’ I wonder, how is the harvest of your life doing this year? What has grown well? How have you tended to the fruits of your life? What might you have neglected? Is there need for some reparation? The great news is that, if action is needed, then you don’t need to wait until next autumn, or even spring, to take steps to make things better…..and God (and your local church) are here to support you.
God bless you, Rev Chris
September 2024 ‘The change in us all’
I can hardly believe that my God daughter’s son is starting college this September. Do you ever feel as if time has flown by in the blink of an eye? It seems like only yesterday that he was starting school, and yet here he is on the brink of an exciting career, stepping out as a young adult – and I confess that I am very proud of the person he is becoming.
For many people, young and not-so-young, September is a month of new starts. There’s an air of freshness as schools start back after the summer holiday and many new leaves are turned over! Long after school and college days, that sense of new beginnings remains for many of us and I believe it is something to be cherished. Even when our own situations may look as though they have remained the same from year to year, there is still the sense that we have changed, through all that we have experienced over the past year, which gives us the opportunity to see things differently.
I wonder what helps you to see things differently? We are all changing – many of us are aware of becoming more creaky each year, but that’s not really what I mean. Being open to different ways of seeing things involves letting go of old ways, and being prepared to be surprised.
I remember the first time I discovered a snake skin that had been left behind by a renewed snake. What an incredible change! It’s a bit like the way a butterfly leaves the cocoon that was formed by the caterpillar – a necessary act if it is to be able to fly. Sometimes we too need to let go of old ways of seeing in order to see things differently.
At a recent home visit a young Dad challenged me to watch The Chosen – a relatively new box-set drama about Jesus. I love a challenge, am already on Series 2 and thus far can commend it to you! One of the phrases that keeps cropping up as the Pharisees, disciples and authorities all struggle to understand what is going on is ‘get used to different’. If we are to grow in our understanding, then we too have to be prepared to adjust our thinking….and ‘get used to different’.
One of the early Larry Norman songs tackles a change in the way he sees things: ‘I don’t believe in miracles, I know what’s real, I don’t pretend. I don’t believe in miracles or stories with a happy end – life is no one’s friend. But when we met – I felt so free, and suddenly I felt a change come over me. Do you suppose a miracle is happening to me?’
As we step into September this year, let’s be open to the surprises it has in store, with the chance to see things differently and encounter the many miracles all around us!
God bless you,
Rev Chris