Our
Senior Pastor has been on sabbatical for a few months, therefore we have
enjoyed a variety of visiting preachers. Each one has spoken on a different
biblical character and to accompanying their sermons has been a diversity of presentation methods.
Yesterday was the turn of Esther and the speaker used classic works of art as
backgrounds to his powerpoint slides. (And like a cashier operator in the days
prior to automated queuing, he startled anyone who was thinking of napping with
a firm ‘next-please!’ to the pc operator).
Esther
is one of the books of the bible that doesn’t mention God directly but has His
fingerprints all over it (I’m sure this is a statement can be attributed to any
number of people.) To be honest I didn’t pay terribly close attention to most
of what the preacher was saying; it was largely a plot summarisation. But one
phrase did register clearly:
Love letters from God
After
the service we chatted generally with people, we are in a large church and
still getting to know people. The Scotsman was chatting with a friend of ours
who is newer than we are and I was flitting in and out of the conversation.
Sadly her dad had died last month and she was telling us about the day of his
funeral. How some friends had rallied round and tidied up his garden so they
could all spend the afternoon sitting out in the sun after the service, with the feeling that her dad was looking down. The
Scotsman shared the story of how the rainbow appeared after my mum’s committal
at the crematorium.
Both these things,
making sad days special
Love messages from
God
Later
in the evening I tackled the ironing whilst the feature film Australia was on
TV. It has a strong theme of love running through it and several interweaving
storylines, great scenery and a good musical score. The song Somewhere over the
Rainbow is also a recurrent theme (the character Lady Sarah teaches it to
Nullah the boy of aboriginal heritage just after his mother dies and it is
later assimilated in song and also on the harmonica.)
I
could feel tears pricking my eyes at the first rendition of Somewhere over the
Rainbow. By the time Nullah was playing it near the end of the film on the
harmonica, for the sound to carry through the fog to the harbour so Lady Sarah
(Mrs Boss) could hear it, I was adding more than steam to the clothes being ironed!
I
also love Eva Cassidy’s version of Over the Rainbow and have often used that gentle
and understated version as a piano piece when playing for funerals. There is
much love and hope in rainbows.
The words that come out of God’s mouth are
not always physical words and the manifestations of His love are as many and
varied as we are.
That is Mystery
and Divine and beyond our understanding.
I
love it when God reaches down in our interweaving stories with His love
messages.
Time
after time (if we are listening)
Isaiah 55 v 8-11
I don't think the way you think
The way you work isn't the way I work. God's decree.
"For as the sky soars high above the earth
so the was I work surpasses the way you work
and the way I think is beyond the way you think.
Just as rain and snow descend from the skies
and don't go back until they have watered the earth,
doing their work of making things grow and blossom,
so will the words that come out of my mouth
not come back empty handed.
They'll do the work I sent them to do,
they'll complete the assignment I gave them.
I don't think the way you think
The way you work isn't the way I work. God's decree.
"For as the sky soars high above the earth
so the was I work surpasses the way you work
and the way I think is beyond the way you think.
Just as rain and snow descend from the skies
and don't go back until they have watered the earth,
doing their work of making things grow and blossom,
so will the words that come out of my mouth
not come back empty handed.
They'll do the work I sent them to do,
they'll complete the assignment I gave them.
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