This photo is of poppies in a Dutch garden of my relatives in Lindelaan, near The Hague. They are headlined, Danielle’s Poppies and the photograph was taken by Marijke and Piet, friends of our family.
Our tears came like drops of blood when in that garden of destruction men died in trenches and the mud. The Somme was void of living, towns laid waste, homes wrecked, people empty.
In the rubble of humanity we hid our seed, our flowers the grave-markers of friend and foe: a bitter proclamation of a conflict that needs remembering. Blood red poppies – stained with futility.
But there is more.
Long ago, on a far away hill, blood drenched the ground where a young warrior offered up not myriad victims, but himself. From a wooden cross, his death became his weapon. Red – the colour of blood and of love – transforming hatred and pointlessness into peace and meaning.
Blood red poppies – we are heraldic flowers; calling all to a new way, a way of re-membering: of piecing together all that is good, peaceful and true.
A resurrected sign of God’s love.
[Mr G 14th July 2023]
Inspired by a visit to the Somme and working alongside the Royal British Legion. Dedicated to the people of Ukraine.
Nova Kakhovka dam : satellite image, Maxar technologies
Prayer in the face of destructionof Nova Kakhovka dam
With humanitarian and ecological disasters still unfolding, it is already clear that tens of thousands of people have been deprived of drinking water, many are homeless, crops are ruined, land mines have been displaced, and the stage is set for long-term electricity shortages. Evacuation efforts are under way – about 3,000 have fled so far – amid a sense of despair as people try to wade through the rising floodwaters to safer locations. (Aljazeera)
Please pray for people to be saved, for rescuers and all who are helping to evacuate people.
Prayer for Kherson ( Херсо́н)and those parts of Ukraine which are flooding.
God, we pray for the city of Kherson, and the communities affected by the flooding caused by the attack on the Nova Kakhovka dam.
Be with all those who have lost homes, livelihoods, and the things that sustain life; farmers with destroyed crops, animals especially domestic pets abandoned; bewildered children and elderly; those without pure drinking water and trying to cope with the destruction caused by the wickedness and the evil of Mr Putinand those who, with him, commit crimes against humanity.
We pray for that other humanity, kind, caring and compassionate who are involved in rescuing, sheltering, comforting all who are suffering. For your blessing, Lord, on their unstinting and self-less actions.
In the face of all this mayhem, upheaval and despair, May you be in the midst of all that pain, upholding and sustaining your people in this time of great need.
Bless too, Mr Zelensky and all working with him as he faces more and more difficulties in the face of which he must build up spirits and keep before his people a vision which will one day be accomplished. Sustain and uphold him and keep him safe.
Help us all, Lord, to hold in our hearts and our love those who are stretching out their arms to us with hope and numbness.
Give us all the will to work for peace. Lord, have mercy. Amen
A candle for Ukraine, lit in the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in London on Friday February 24th.
Take Only What Is Most Important
Take only what is most important. Take the letters. Take only what you can carry. Take the icons and the embroidery, take the silver, Take the wooden crucifix and the golden replicas.
Take some bread, the vegetables from the garden, then leave. We will never return again. We will never see our city again. Take the letters, all of them, every last piece of bad news.
We will never see our corner store again. We will never drink from that dry well again. We will never see familiar faces again. We are refugees. We’ll run all night.
We will run past fields of sunflowers. We will run from dogs, rest with cows. We’ll scoop up water with our bare hands, sit waiting in camps, annoying the dragons of war.
You will not return and friends will never come back. There will be no smoky kitchens, no usual jobs, There will be no dreamy lights in sleepy towns, no green valleys, no suburban wastelands.
The sun will be a smudge on the window of a cheap train, rushing past cholera pits covered with lime. There will be blood on women’s heels, tired guards on borderlands covered with snow,
a postman with empty bags shot down, a priest with a hapless smile hung by his ribs, the quiet of a cemetery, the noise of a command post, and unedited lists of the dead,
so long that there won’t be enough time to check them for your own name.
Serhiy Zhadan
Translated from the Ukrainian by Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps
This poem by Serhiy Zhadan, an internationally acclaimed poet and novelist, from Ukraine, was read by actress, Dame Helen Mirren, at a Vigil in London. She ended her recitation with tears in her eyes and calling for ‘Freedom ‘ for Ukraine. The poem was written in 2015. It details the turmoil of war and the plight of refugees. Zhadan makes a reference to sunflowers, the national symbol of the Ukraine. Totally relevant to what has been the experience of so many in the present war in the Ukraine, it speaks powerfully about what being driven from ones homeland means. Maybe it will also move the hearts who have a negative view of what receiving refugees is really about.
for I was hugry and you did not feed me, thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink……
Sunflower field in Lviv, Ukraine. Image credit, Getty
Ukraine sunflowers According to an entry in the 1993 Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Spaniards brought sunflowers from the New World to Europe in the early 17th century. The flowers were subsequently introduced in Ukraine in the mid-18th century and it was adopted as the National Flower. It has also been adopted throughout the world as a symbol of the love, support and prayer for the people of Ukraine. The Sunflower’s brightness and joy is a heartfelt expression of hope for the children of Ukraine.
Increasingly more and more children are suffering, becoming injured, dying or made orphans. As usual it is the innocent who pay such a great price for what human beings do to each other. They are the victims of demonic activity in our world and they need or love and support the most. They are God’s sunflowers and the hope for God’s future. President Zelensky not only recognizes this but also, that it is they for whom the nation of Ukraine must fight and must care for. This is his recent posting.
Below that is a prayer inspired by the children of Linton URC Church England.
Loving God, We see the pictures on the news, we hear the stories in the playground; What’s happening in the Ukraine is scary and we don’t know what to think or do. We know it’s happening in other places too, places like the Yemen, Afghanistan, Palestine. So much fighting, so much bullying and injustice, so much to understand. But you are with your children, no matter where they are, so we know we can talk to you. Be with the people of Ukraine and everywhere where there’s fighting. Be with the babies, the children, the young people when they are afraid or anxious. Give strength to the people who love them and help them. Give courage to those who stand up to oppression and speak out for peace. Touch the hearts of those who are threatening others and teach them a better way to be. Jesus taught us that your way is the way of love and of peace. Help us to trust in your way, and to do our bit to act in your way wherever we can, Loving others and being peacemakers in our own small corner of the world.
Mr G's Ponderings 