Magazine for November 2011
A Season for Everything
Harvest services complete, leaves beginning to fall from the trees and the Christmas lights already in place in the streets of Warwick and Leamington. What are your plans for Christmas? I was asked this at the weekend, as we were in the middle of a large family gathering to celebrate a 90th birthday. I had to confess I hadn’t got that far in my thinking yet. I know roughly what is happening in my work at St Mark’s, as many forthcoming events are already in the diary, but my mind is still firmly in autumn.
I found myself looking at the book of Ecclesiastes a little while ago, not a book of the bible that would normally be high on my reading list, but as I reflected back on the family year up till now, it suddenly seemed so relevant. We got stuck in snow in the north of England at the beginning of the year, walked round in shirt sleeves and watched daffodils and blossom burst into life overnight during an incredibly warm few days in March, spent a cool and damp week on the Isle of Wight in July, and saw the first autumn colour on leaves in the first week of August. I pruned many of my garden plants a couple of weeks ago in preparation for winter but have been surprised and delighted to have enjoyed a new show of roses and summer flowers following a really warm week in the middle of October when the temperatures were in the mid 20′s Celsius! Although the seasons seem to blur into each other and overlap there are still seasons and times for everything.
This year we have celebrated births, major birthdays and marriages; it has also been a time to mourn the loss of friends. The writer of Ecclesiastes tells us, ‘There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven.’ I am sure many of us have been puzzled, surprised or confused by the weather, the seemingly mixing up of the seasons this year, and although I don’t understand it, I try to enjoy it because as the bible tells us, ‘He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.’ To find out more about times and seasons try looking at Ecclesiastes chapter 3.
Barry Poultney