2009 Letter No 11

Each month Bill writes a pastor's letter for our monthly church magazine called 'The Messenger'. Here is the letter for November 2009:

What is your favourite season?

For some there is the love of the cool air of winter, especially with snow under foot. Others prefer the signs of new life which arrive in spring, while my favourite season is probably the summer, with its long warm days and light evenings. But there is something special about autumn too. Fruitfulness, and the beauty of the leaves turning into many shades of red, orange and brown.

I was brought up on the edge of a wood and many of my childhood memories involve taking dogs for walks through the beech trees of the Chiltern hills, which are especially pleasing in the autumn.

These thoughts and others make me grateful for the richness and variety of Creation. We have been given eyes to see, ears to hear, noses to smell and hearts with which to be thankful.

At harvest I enjoyed celebrating our Creator God. Usually in my preaching and in our worship we spend more time celebrating our God as the great Redeemer – the one who brings us freedom from sin and death through Jesus Christ – but it is also good and important to remember our God as the one who created all things by speaking them into existence and who holds the oceans in the palm of his hand.

Our worship is often brought into a helpful balance by a focus upon the Trinity. God the Father, who created the world and who is enthroned in splendour above the heavens. God the Son, who lived among us – flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone – and who died to restore the broken relationship between humanity and our Creator. God the Holy Spirit, who is among us and in us – strengthening us, guiding us and transforming us into the likeness of Christ so that we can be the people we were created to be. One God – holy and majestic, and yet closer to us than our own breath. In all our celebration of Jesus, let us not forget our Creator.

And as we approach winter, may I share with you a short poem I wrote many years ago when I was a student in the snowy North. It celebrates our Creator God, and is called ‘After a night’s snowfall’: