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Spiritual reflection to start the day with Fr Philip Blackledge of Holy Trinity Scottish Episcopal Church, Melrose.
Good morning. Here in the Scottish Borders where I live and work, September is a spectacular month. I was driving across the moors recently, on a day which could only be described as meteorologically grumpy, with mizzle and grey cloud, when a sudden downpour cleared the skies and what shone out of that misty sky was a different world. The blues of the day now fading, the scattered cloud highlighted what was to come – a landscape in the sky, the warm glow of a vast orange and red sunset, with that unreal light that you get in Autumn.
The seasons change the landscape in so many ways, as the vulnerable green of Spring gives way to the vivid blooms of summer, the russet fulfilment of harvest to the blue cold of winter. Each trip around the sun is like a little birth and death, both part of nature and part of our own life cycle. And as Ecclesiastes reminds us there is a time for all of these things – a time to sow and a time to reap, a time to plant and to pluck up. And God has made these things beautiful in their time, but has given to us a notion of eternity, just enough for us to know that, even if we can’t see beyond the veil, we have a feeling that there might be more to the Universe than we can see.
God of beauty, you order the stars and the planets in their courses, you have given us the changes of the seasons and the times of the year. You cause blossom to form and the fruit to swell, and you have blessed the fallow times of winter too. May we learn of you from the wonder around us, from your presence in every leaf and twig, so that we may find you also in the noise and haste of life, in the faces of friends and strangers, and in ourselves. Amen.