You can do life with anxiety and stress as constant companions, or you can face the same hurdles and trials with peace. Your hand tucked into the hand of your Abba Father.

Will we believe what our circumstances and feelings seem to say or will we choose another narrative? Will we choose the truth?

That choice is ours.

I love Dahlias - I've just discovered them. Hadn’t really known about them before, and I had certainly never planted any, but this past summer I had a go, resulting in a glorious chaotic jumble of flowers and leaves and long stems, all tripping and falling over one another! But what joy! Every time I open the front door, I can’t help but smile and a sense of gratitude arises within me for this stunning display of glory and wonder, for the transformation of seed to flower, for the sense of summer that they bring to my little patch, even when the sun is not shining.

Photo by Timo C. Dinger on Unsplash

Do you think it’s truly possible to find real contentment, despite what is going on in our lives? Do you believe that, as followers of Jesus, we can live in a place where the traumas and troubles, the chaos and confusion of life, both corporate and personal, does not steal from us our joy and our peace? And is there such a ‘place’ where this rest runs so deeply, that it is more powerful than that which threatens to destabilise and rock our worlds?

EASTER. It is that time of year, again.

We will all, no doubt, follow Jesus on His journey from entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to the crucifixion, five days later, on Golgotha, just outside that same city. As with the Christmas story, we can be over familiar with its details, and in our presumption, it is possible to miss what God might want us to see.

For many of us this past year has felt like we have been in a desert. The familiar routines and ways of life have gone and in their place boredom for some, and for others, the stressful juggle of home education and work - a number of us are struggling with the financial implications of Covid 19, and loneliness, anxiety and even despair have become our constant companions.

Men from a far away land in the East. Men who had been hoping all their lives. Men who had not given up searching, and had become old in the process. Wise men.

He could not have been busier. Bethlehem was bulging at the seams, under the weight of all the extra people in town for the census. He loved it when the inn was full and noisy and vibrant with chatter. People. He was definitely a people person. He did his very best for his customers - he cared about their opinions and their needs, and of course, his reputation.

Joseph is betrothed to Mary, but she is pregnant with God’s son. She can no longer hide the shape of her expanding belly, and he must also endure the shunning and shaming by the very community who have known them since they were children playing in the heat and dust.

How can he be expected to believe such a story?

Mary’s response to the angel Gabriel’s announcement is quite EXTRAORDINARY. We have got used to it because we have read it and have heard it spoken from pulpits and in nativity plays, so many times, over so many years.

Our heads are often full of voices - voices that pull us in opposing directions. There are so many words and not enough spaces in between. These words vie for our attention and the voices seem to demand some sort of action. At least, that is how it has felt for me these past few weeks.