Rev Anne Smith returned from sabbatical on Monday 19 July 2010. Rev Jonathan Musselwhite wrote the double-month newsletter message during Anne's absence.
Let your light so shine ...
This will be the last newsletter I write for the St. Andrews and Norton newsletter, well at least for the foreseeable future! It has been both my pleasure and privilege to stand in for Anne during her sabbatical and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your help and encouragement over these past months.
It’s not very often that you do something for the first time but when you do it can often leave a lasting impression, this was one such occasion. Last week Anne and I went to the Evesham Balloon Festival to see the hot air balloons and we were not disappointed!
We arrived a little after 6.00pm in the evening and wandered around the park looking at old classic cars, caravans and motor caravans and a lone hot air balloon caught our eye, we wandered over and noticed this huge balloon was tethered with ropes and was using a burner to maintain its height about six feet from the ground. It was incredible to see the power of hot air. When the burner was switched off within a very short space of time the balloon started to descend, then when the burner with its huge flame fired up the balloon started to lift and strained at the ropes trying to be free.
At 7.00pm we witnessed an amazing sight, 27 hot air balloons taking off one after another, it was breathtaking to see all these balloons ascending right in front of our eyes just feet away from where we were standing. Up they went each with this invisible power within taking them higher and higher and then the prevailing wind took them over the trees and out of sight. Within minutes of them disappearing a fleet of ground support crews and their vehicles left the arena in hot pursuit. Wow, how awesome was that!
During the course of the evening the support crews brought the balloons and their passengers back and prepared for the ‘Night Glow’. The stage was set, 9 balloons in the middle and ten or so baskets with their burners attached around the perimeter. At 10.00pm the music started and balloons and burners lit the night sky to the rhythm of the music it was a truly spectacular sight. You could feel the heat from the burners and the balloons themselves were glowing with radiant light.
John 1 verse 5 says ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.’
As I watched these balloons glowing in the darkness I was reminded that we are called to ‘let our light shine’ (Matthew 5 verse 16) in this dark world, to allow Christ in us to be seen in our life and witness. During the daylight the ‘glow’ of the balloons could not be seen, but in the darkness they could be seen for miles around. As Christians we take God, His presence, wherever we go, He abides in us, we are ‘Temples of the Holy Ghost’, we bring hope and life to a dying world and most of the time we’re not aware of it, we can’t see it and yet God in us is the light that shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot put it out.
I pray in these coming days that you will have the opportunity to ‘shine’, the opportunity to bring Christ, His light into someone else’s darkness. Let your light Shine!
Every blessing
Jon
