Create a peaceful space to pause, and allow yourself to feel God’s presence alongside you, as near to you as your own breath. In following the reflection below, as a church we will draw closer to God and to one another as we grow in faith and deepen our sense of belonging to God.
Isaiah 43:1-3 ‘Forever God’s People’
1 But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. 3 For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour.
John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
When I was quite young, my father, who was a Presbyterian/URC minister, told this story as a children’s address and I’ve remembered it ever since.
James lived near a river and wanted a boat to sail on it. “I’ll help you make one,” said his father and together, with loving care, they crafted a yacht, which sailed beautifully and gave hours of enjoyment. Then one day a sudden wild gust of wind caught its sails and blew the yacht away. In a flash it had vanished downstream and, search as he might James couldn’t find it.
A month or so later he and his dad were in a nearby town, when what should they see in the window of a second-hand shop but James’s yacht. Not wasting a moment, James went straight in and bought it – it took every penny of the pocket-money he’d been saving for a long time, but he didn’t mind. As he came out of the shop, holding his precious yacht in both hands, his dad heard him saying, “First I made you, then I lost you and now I’ve saved you”.
That’s what God has done for us. He made us, each one of us, individually, with love. And then, because we were blown off course and lost, he bought us back again, he saved us. The price he was prepared to pay was the death of his only Son, Jesus. That’s how much God loves us.
Whenever we become separated from God by sin, whenever we lose our way, God is always ready and waiting to welcome us back into his loving arms.
Prayer:
Lord God, our creator,
we thank you that you made each of us with love, and allow us to choose which way we will go in life. Although inevitably from time to time we choose the wrong way and get hopelessly lost, you are always ready to forgive us and waiting with open arms to heal us and to set us on the right path again.
Help us to give proper time to listen to you, we pray, to hear your call and to follow your way for us. May we always realize that though we may often be blown off course we are never beyond your love, shown fully to us in the death of Jesus on the cross. Amen.
Reflection and Prayer © 2020 Ann Caffyn.
Image freely available online.
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All material within this order of worship is reproduced by permission under CCL 1226356