Vicar’s February Letter

Dear friends,

I am sat in my study looking out of the windows across the garden. Snow is falling, snow on snow, snow on snow. Not sure how long it will last for, but I’ve had enough already (and I haven’t even been out yet). I used to love the snow. I have many happy memories of building snowmen and sledging and days off school. All wonderful. I think my attitude changed when I had responsibilities and had to be places. Then snow just became a nuisance that stopped me doing what I wanted to do or what I needed to do. Writing that now seems very sad. I’ve lost something of my childhood sense of wonder and fun. I’ll work on that. When you see me, ask if I’ve been sledging or built a snowman.

Anyway, I digress. What I was going to say was this is a time of year when lots of people think about holidays. Although the snow at the moment looks beautiful, often the weather at this time of year is cold and damp and anything but beautiful. The early weeks of a New Year is often a time when we are inundated with adverts of offers on flights and holidays on TV and in newspapers and magazines. Have you thought about holidays for later in the year? Have you booked anything? Have you managed to secure any bargains?

Sian and I have been trying to sort out our time off through the year to enable rotas to be sorted and dates for various events to be sorted. Usually when we go away we stay at Travelodge and always try to book rooms during sales, so although we enjoy getting away we don’t do anything too expensive or exciting. This year is a little different though. My parents are taking us away for a few days in May. Thanks Mum and Dad! (My Mum always reads these letters when they are put on the website.) Also, we are taking a trip to the US in August / September and have been busy planning details and booking hotels.  Working out what we can do to make the most of the trip. All very exciting. There’s something about having things to look forward to that helps us to keep going. That’s why we think about summer holidays during the winter. It helps us get through the cold, dark, damp days.

Christian faith gives us the assurance that we have good things to look forward to even when days seem dark and things seem hard now. God promises us a time with no more death, mourning, crying or pain. This promise, fulfilled in eternity, can and should help us get through difficult times now.

There are particular times in the Church calendar that are based on looking forward. One is Advent, as we look forward to Christmas; the other is Lent as we look forward to, and prepare for, Easter. Ash Wednesday falls on 13 February this year and marks the beginning of Lent. As we think about Lent, we may think about giving things up, chocolates or cakes for instance. A couple of years ago in this letter, I suggested that we could also think about taking something on, reading the Bible or a good book, attending the Lent Course, spending time doing something new, working on a better life balance. I would encourage you to think about these things this year, but I encourage you to think about Easter. To look forward to it and to think about how you can prepare to make the most of it.

I hope you enjoyed / enjoy the snow. I hope you manage to have a holiday at some point during the year. I hope you can enjoy looking forward to your holiday. I hope you have a good, meaningful Lent and work towards a wonderful, powerful, life-changing Easter.

God bless,