This week in all the Churches Together in England, it is Education Sunday which encourages us to pray for everyone in the vast world of education. It is the start of a new academic year and the beginning of a new year in the Methodist Church calendar, and in our local Methodist church it is the beginning of a new Northwest England District combining five districts.
It is a season where people have new jobs, changed jobs, new classes, new schools, new stationary, new routines and even the traffic changes. This is perhaps enhanced by the change in seasons it is a little colder and the nights are drawing in and there are advent calendars in the shops!
This year it is particularly poignant to me and my family as we have moved to live on the Fylde coast and life has changed answering God’s call. For a start there are no hills compared to the other side of Lancashire we have come from, but in their place, we have gained the sea and the wonderful shoreline. We have been enthusiastically welcomed by so many new people and I am very grateful, but I must apologise because I don’t remember everyone’s names yet.
Whilst walking my dog on the beach this week I was struck by the number of broken shells washed up at the tideline, mostly razor shells. There are fewer attractive intact shells, but I often see these pretty ones and pick them up to bring home and put in my garden. But as I walked, I listened to a reading set for this week (James 2.1-10 see below) and I recognised that by only ever picking up the perfect shells I was making a judgement, demanding perfection. However, there are far more shells washed up that are smashed and broken by the waves, these shells may have been washed up a few times and have never been selected to be taken home by anyone. It was then I came across a picture someone had created in the sand it was a spiral of broken and intact shells which created a beautiful picture.
Listening to the words from James again I thought about how we can often show partiality based on appearance that is mostly outward, the way people dress, look sound or even smell. We even judge people by the way they behave if they seem different. We do this as we move into new places and mix with new people and at this time of year this is even more likely because it is a time of reorder and restructure. We select our friends and build relationships often based on first impressions, but what this does is leave all the people that are different to us on the beach. What this does is stop us creating the beautiful picture of rich diversity God created.
Maybe as we progress into this new season, we could think about what we avoid or overlook, the rough jagged, chipped or broken shells, the incomplete and faded shells or even begin to wonder that they were all created as we were by God and if we were a shell which one would we be?
I have collected some broken and intact shells to create a picture it is not as dramatic as the one on the beach but you can see the impact of diversity.
Rev. Michaela
Recent Comments