Thought for the Day, 30^th March 2020 - It’s God’s World

Bible extract

Psalm 24, vv. 1 – 2

The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein;
for he has founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.  

Reflection

Mother Julian of Norwich lived in the 14^th and 15^th centuries. These were dramatic and severe times – Norwich suffered the devastation of the Black Death between 1348 and 1350, followed 30 years later by the Peasants’ Revolt. On 8^th May 1373, during a life-threatening illness, Julian received 16 ‘shewings’ – visions - of the Lord. She became an anchoress, voluntarily going into the most extreme lifelong self isolation in a tiny ‘cell’, where she reflected on the visions and became the first woman in England known to have written a book, The Revelations of Divine Love. In one of her most famous reflections, she said: 

‘He showed me a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, in the palm of my hand, and it was as round as a ball. I looked at it with my mind’s eye and I thought, “What can this be?” And answer came, “It is all that is made.” I marvelled that it could last, for I thought it might have crumbled to nothing, it was so small. And the answer came into my mind, “It lasts and ever shall because God loves it.” And all things have being through the love of God.’

Prayer

As the days lengthen and the earth spends longer in the light of day, grant that I may spend longer in the light of your presence, O Lord, and those seeds of your Word, which have been long buried within me, grow, like everything around us, into love for you and love for people, to become a visible declaration of your lordship in my life.  Grant, Father, that this Lent there may be a springtime for my life in Christ.  Amen        (Prayer by DICK WILLIAMS)

Music

He’s got the whole world in His hands – Nina Simone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h4Uqfidn7k