Beauty surrounds us, but we usually need to be walking in a garden to know it - Rumi
I find that flower pots, like the plants they contain, often seem to have a mind of their own. When I am not looking they appear to multiply and grow. In amongst the cobwebs, in almost every corner of the greenhouse there is another flower pot that I am sure wasn’t there yesterday. Of course they are always useful but what to do with the surplus? It seems a shame to throw them away. After all, as we know the oceans of the planet are choking under the amount of plastic that we discard. The fish, birds and animals, over which God made us stewards don’t forget, are dying as a result of our “throw-away” society’s habits. Fortunately for me the Annual Church fete came to the rescue. There on the Notice board was a request for flower pots! Hurrah, now they can be re-used by someone who needs them!
This idea leads nicely to Sunday’s Gospel reading from Luke 15:8-10, where Jesus speaks of the woman who has ten pieces of silver but loses one. She lights a candle and sweeps the house clean until she finds it. Then she and her neighbours rejoice at recovering it. In the same way God seeks us from amongst the dust and grime of this world, looking in all its murky corners until He finds us. Of course, we must want to be found for He will not coerce or force His Will upon us, but having found us He rejoices. ‘In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.’ Luke 15:10 (NIV). So as the flower pots are refilled with compost and planted up with fresh seedlings, or new plants, for the enjoyment of someone else ask yourself, what more can you do for God today?
1 Comment
Steve Givens
18/6/2018 03:39:49 pm
This is a great analogy for all those extra "buckets" in our lives that cold be used but sit empty and unfruitful. It's time to clean the shed and figure out what we have to share...
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AuthorI am an Authorised Local Preacher in an Anglo Catholic parish church, in the Diocese of Essex UK Archives
February 2022
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