Still Church Still here

I'm no gardener.  It's not that I don't love a garden, I do.  But I never have the time to give to make a garden what I want it to be.  And yet my garden grows.  Specifically, right now my garden grows the most beautiful roses.  I don't deserve them - I wouldn't know how to care for a rose even if I had the time - and yet here they are, undeserved and beautiful, and a sudden and simple joy when I stepped outside a few days ago.  And I'm not the only one enjoying them.  Can you see the tiny insect absolutely loving his or her time on the flower.  I spent ages just watching it walking around, relishing  the colour of the flower and the face of the little insect. Can insects smile?  This one seems to! I had another special moment recently.  In the last few weeks the rules for shielding have changed and I am allowed to leave the house if I stay away from other people. So at a suitably quiet time we found a back route to a quiet part of ...

If you were to ask me what my favourite passage in the Bible is, I would struggle.  Not because I don't know any to choose, but because there are so many that I find special in so many ways.  From John's Gospel, through the psalms, and into Isaiah I could name you any number of passages that speak to me.  But one of my favourites is from Paul in the letter to the Romans where he writes that 'all things work together for good for those who love God'.  I'm not only profoundly glad of that, given all the things that have got messed up in my life, but also very aware of the truth of it when I see what God has brought about through the events that have shaped me.  While I may not have seen God's working in my life at the time, when I look back I can often see his presence - if only in the fact I made it through.  And if I am changed or altered by the things that batter me around a bit, then I am no less loved by God, and of no less worth because I am a little ch...