Tag: Joyce Smith

Into your hands

My friend Joyce has sent me her latest Photo Tweet.

The little bird may seem to be a far cry from the Crucifixion of Jesus but the photo expresses something fundamental about God’s message to us on Good Friday.This little bird exudes Trust in God.
There is a certain still confidence that she is being held in the love of God, who silently but surely is holding her in the cleft of the wood—in the cleft of God’s love, which is the at the heart of wood of the
Cross
She is held securely by God. And so are we.

A prayer poem by Ladislaus Boros, reflecting on the Crucifixion of Jesus, tells us
why we can be certain of God’s deep love from us.

Crucified

“Behold the wood of the cross on which hung the Saviour of the world:
come, let us adore him.”

This is what the Church sings during the Good Friday liturgy.

Before the mystery of his death on the cross,
we must fall silent.
Only adoration remains.
This fundamental letting go,
self-abandonment,
in the presence of God
is already adoration.

Not simply deep adoration
but the deepest possible.

Such adoration is like
pure light, clean air.
Through it breathes
unshakeable trust.

It comes from the conviction
that despite all difficulties
we are held in the hands of God.
As Jesus said in his last moments:
‘Father, into thy hands,
I commend my sprit.

(Ladislaus Boros; Breaking through to God)

It is easy to believe that from its position of trust, our little bird is adoring God who loves
her. Jesus on the Cross tells us the same. Come, let us adore Him.

[Mr G]

Special and unique

“Dear Friends,
Isn’t it amazing that each one of us, and all creation, is unique and special to God.
With my love and prayers,
Joyce”

This latest Picture Tweet from Joyce, with the quotation from Margaret Mead, is saying something very simple and very profound.

You don’t need me to tell you that our world is in a mess right now. There are huge problems Internationally and more locally. The News is generally depressing and it’s easy to feel dispirited and overwhelmed.

So, all the more reason to look at the uniqueness of creation and all the wonderful things that are happening as Spring reveals itself once again.
We are all a significant part of that revealing so we can contribute uniquely to a new direction for our world.
A friend, Bishop Jack Nichols, commenting on the state of things, prays: ‘God Bless this Mess’.
We do that best if we are ourselves a blessing to the world.
We are such a blessing because of what Joyce reminds us about our being special and unique to God.
But don’t rely on what I say, or what Joyce says. Much more importantly believe what God says. Believe it and live out its truth in your life.
In Isaiah 43 verse 1, we read.

But now, thus says the Lord,
He who created you …
He who formed you …
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name,
You are Mine !!!

[Mr.G.]

In love is our strength

My friend Joyce has sent me this lovely picture tweet. She writes,
This sleepy wood pigeon is enjoying the warmth of the sun and the beauty of the blossom before it is blown away. With my love and prayers. God bless, Joyce

There is a call to stillness as nature and the natural world bring forth the joy of creation. The blossom heralds Spring and, though fleeting, it is a sign of hope.

We all know that there is so much darkness and despair right now. Ukraine weighs heavily on our hearts and other places are unsettled. The girls denied an education this week in Afghanistan are only part of the problem there, as children and families suffer increasingly from malnutrition.

We need to remain aware, too, that there are many in Russia who oppose the war at their peril and yet are brave enough to speak out. They too need our prayerful support.

So whilst all around us there is destruction and fragility, it is good to be reminded that the earth still blossoms with beauty and the promise of new life.

Two years ago we went into the first Lockdown against Covid. That virus in differing forms is still with us. I myself am battling it at the moment, as are about a million others in the UK alone. Maybe we didn’t really learn the lessons. Maybe we should have taken up the opportunities of a new way of living and so developed new values by which to be truly human and truly at one with each other and creation.

At the time of the first lockdown, the artist, David Hockney, painted a series of paintings. Alongside them he said, Do remember, they can’t cancel the Spring! Maybe, in the midst of all that is besetting and destroying humanity in a maelstrom of the demonic, we need to pray and work for that truth.

Spring is God’s time of renewal and re-birth. To give us that gift, however, he had to take on the demonic of evil by dying on the Cross. It was the triumph of love and light against evil and darkness and, in the words of the poet T.S.Eliot, it cost God not less than everything. For Ukraine and other places of suffering, that is a personal reality for many right now, not least their inspirational and dedicated President, Volodymyr Zelensky. It is costing the Ukrainian Nation not less than everything.

Many of us are deeply humbled by the people of Ukraine and by the multitude of people who are receiving the victims of the war by opening their countries, their hearts and their homes with a generosity, compassion and love which is rapidly enfolding those for whom life has changed so deeply.
In such hospitality the demonic is being confronted and in many ways defeated by love.
God is enthusing and empowering that love.

Our little wood pigeon surrounded by blue sky and gorgeous blossom is, in its own way, a reminder that not only has spring not been cancelled but also, neither has love. It may be very fragile but it cannot be broken.

[Mr G]

Love remains

My friend, Joyce, has sent me this photo of two companionable swans, making gentle progress in the canal waters. They are contendedly together as love flows between them. The Caption from St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is well known but perhaps less pondered because of that.
Joyce says that :
In these dark times, these words of love bring light and hope.
That light and hope comes to us through God.

During Lent we Christians are invited by God to understand more deeply that the Victory of Christ on the cross is really life-changing and that this change comes about not because of something we do but of realizing that God has done, and goes on doing, something so powerful in our lives through Christ on the Cross.
He has loved us totally and completely and through that Love he has drawn us into himself so that, as Paul tells the Galatians (2:20)

It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.

In order to die to self and live for, and in, Christ we are, says Jesus, to take up our Cross and follow him.
He is not asking for heroics. He is not asking us to search for some impossible burden to carry, some suffering to undergo.
He is asking us to commit ourselves to carry the sign of God’s love in our lives. It is the power of that love to transform that makes the real difference
For that to happen, the Love of Christ must rule our hearts, our lives – come what may.

Many years ago, a young Russian priest was imprisoned at the beginning of the Russian Revolution.
Years later he was released from prison. He was a broken man.
His friends asked him, “What is left of you?”
“Nothing” he replied, “nothing is left. They have burnt out everything. Only love remains.”

That priest had discovered the one thing that changes every human situation and disarms every human conflict – sacrificial love.
Only Love remains – that is what is necessary for Christ to change the world – and he does it through us. When we abide in God’s love, totally, then, as we walk around the area where we live, it will become a changed and different place. Our approach to others will be different, generous, kind and joyful.

The darkness of our present situation in the world can easily lead to despair and a sense of futility but we are called to be, increasingly, signs of God’s amazing, long suffering and transforming love. We are called, in fact, to carry that love into all the world’s dark places and into hearts that have turned away from love.
On the Cross the victory of Jesus was the triumph of love over all that is not love. It was a cosmic battle to proclaim God’s power over demonic and destructive forces which threaten to swamp the world with evil, hatred, self absorbtion and oppression.
Against this darkness and evil we are to love and go on loving for, as the great mystic, St John of the Cross, put it so powerfully:

“Where there is no love, pour love in, and you will draw love out.”

[Mr G]

Cartoon by Charlie Mackesy who speaks profoundly through humour

Thank you Joyce for your inspirational photo & text