Reflection
I know that whilst you have been home schooling, many of you have been doing some amazing art and crafts. I’d like to show you two things my Granddaughter Leana has made. Of course, I can’t see them at the moment but my son-in-law has sent me some photographs.
The first is of this amazing caterpillar. Can you see what it is made from? Now, I’m sure many of you know the story of the very hungry caterpillar. Well, today I want to tell you a story about a very special caterpillar. He was very hungry, and he munched away on leaves until he grew into a big caterpillar like this one.
And he was a kind caterpillar, so he showed all the other caterpillars where to find the biggest, juiciest leaves, and everyone in the caterpillar community loved him and followed him from leaf to leaf. And then one day, the caterpillar said to his friends, “I’m going away for a little time, I have a very special job to do”.
The other caterpillars were dismayed and begged him not to go, but the caterpillar said that he must go, but promised that they would see him again. The caterpillar shuffled away until he found a comfy tree trunk, where he wrapped himself in a silky sleeping bag and went to sleep.
And whilst he was wrapped tightly in his cocoon, he began to change. He grew wonderful wings and long legs and his green coat changed into bright multi-colours and then one sunny day, he burst out of the cocoon as a beautiful butterfly like this one Leana has made.
Wow! The other caterpillars wriggled over to the empty cocoon and began to cry because their friend had gone. They thought he must be dead. Then suddenly they heard a familiar voice and saw a beautiful butterfly hovering above them.
“Don’t cry said the butterfly, I’m here, I’m alive”. The caterpillars could not believe their eyes. “Didn’t I promise you’d see me again?” said the butterfly. “I’ll always be with you and one day you’ll be beautiful butterflies too and we’ll always be together!” Then the beautiful butterfly fluttered away out of sight.
That story reminds us, that like the beautiful butterfly, Jesus is alive, and he is always with us and although we can’t see him, we know he is with us when we see the beautiful things in our lives, like butterflies.
And we know he is with us when we are touched by the kindness of other people and feel the love of Jesus in our hearts. Rev Sue
As I write this we are in the final stages of the refurbishment. It has been a long journey with numerous challenges, not least supporting unstable walls, moving stained glass windows, a war memorial that refused to be prized away from its existing position, and finding chairs suitable for everyone’s leg length! But God willing, we will be celebrating Easter Sunday in our new worship area, and what a celebration it will be!! As you can see, we have a new logo too. With the opening of the worship area, it seemed an opportune time for an Emmanuel logo that can be used on our correspondence and publicity, and our resident artist, Cheryl O’Connor, has beautifully conceived this for us.
Preparing to move back into the Church has given us the opportunity to reflect upon new ways of reaching out to our local community, so please pray for the new initiatives ‘Together on Wednesday’ and ‘Little Fishes’, that will both be launched in May. We are currently in the season of Lent, when we take the opportunity to reflect upon our relationship with God and our response to Jesus’ call to be his disciples. We also look forward to our ‘Talking of God Together’ sessions, which have resulted from our newly formed ‘Faith Forum’. Everyone will be welcome and we would encourage you to bring friends along to these sessions as through scripture, poetry, artwork and testimonies, we can come together, informally, to simply talk about, and deepen our relationship with God.