A message from the Rev’d Amanda Collinson

Posted by Admin on 26 March 2013, 11:09 pm

Amanda Collinson

Priest-in-Charge

St John the Baptist Church

Northwood.

Tel: 01983 294913

Email: revamandacollinson@virginmedia.com

HAPPY EASTER TO YOU ALL!

Jesus is risen – Alleluia! Whilst for many children Easter is the season for eating your weight in chocolate, it is for Christians the season of looking forward, of hope, of promised eternal life. It is a great time for us and indeed for everyone as the longer days and hopefully warmer temperatures bring about some well sought after light and warmth, which brings a real sense of moving into a new time and season. Even though we had snow in the middle of last month hopefully that dark and cold reminder of winter has finally gone for a good few months and with the sun out we can be more encouraged and willing to look up and around at our surroundings. In one of our family services last month we looked at Holy Week with our five main senses – many of us just take these physiological capacities for granted but they really are significant gifts and ones we really should be continually grateful for. I am probably more acutely aware of them as my son is profoundly deaf and my Mum has lost her senses of taste and smell. And as well as them being rather irritating (well from my Mum’s perspective, my son has known no different!) the lack of these senses can also be dangerous – my Mum cannot smell gas, my son without his cochlea implants could not hear a car coming….suddenly they are not just things we have, but important things, significant things and ones we really shouldn’t take for granted! But when was the last time you stopped and took in everything your senses were giving you? One of my favourite Easter poems is written by Helen Steiner Rice, called Easter Reflections, where she beautifully sums up the glory of Easter and how our senses welcome it:

With OUR EYES we see the beauty of Easter as the earth awakens once more.
With OUR EARS we hear the birds sing sweetly to tell us spring again is here.
With OUR HANDS we pick the golden daffodils and the fragrant hyacinths.
But only with OUR HEARTS can we feel the MIRACLE of GOD’S LOVE which redeems all men.
And only with OUR SOUL can we make our ‘pilgrimage to God’ and inherit His Easter Gift of ETERNAL LIFE.

For Helen, Easter is the time when earth wakes up from a deep slumber and heralds the beginning on new life with the re-emergence of animals and flowers but more importantly it is the time to FEEL the real blessings of God and thank him for his eternal gift that he has conferred on us as Easter. This is the message of hope and by golly we all need that message in some way, shape or form at the moment. There are many dark places in our country and around the world where people find themselves feeling isolated and alone, in danger, without food or shelter, longing for a ray of light to pierce the darkness and new possibilities to emerge. This new season may just come and go to people who are struggling with significant problems and issues as they may see no change or difference to their situation and therefore continue to live in the gloom….we, who can, must not let this happen to us or people we love. So this month, let us all really use our senses and become truly aware of our surroundings, of all the things we can appreciate, of what we have – however little or much it is. We may not all be living in comfort and luxury, but we are living in peace, and that is something else we so often take for granted. I pray that the sun shines and opens up all our hearts as well as our eyes this Easter time so that we are truly able to enjoy God’s gifts and creation around us.

With every blessing for a joyous Easter season!

.
Rev’d Amanda