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A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Rev Lynne Gibson Good morning. Michel Quoist, the French theologian died almost thirty years ago. Some of the language of his writing may seem a little bit dated nowadays, but his words still speak to us in a timeless way on matters of faith and life. In his reflection ‘Lord, I have time’, Quoist wrote that ‘Time is a gift that you give us, But a perishable gift, A gift that does not keep.’ Often time is a gift that we only value when it’s gone. When we lose a loved one before their ‘three score years and ten’, we are reminded of how precious the time which is gifted to us really is. We are each challenged to think about how we will use the time left to us, as almost overnight, it seems, we realise that our time is to be used both carefully and generously. ‘Grant us the wisdom and grace to use aright the time that is left us here on earth’ – words from a funeral liturgy which remind us that our time is finite and limited. It’s not just a matter of having a ‘carpe diem, use your good china now’ attitude, and of taking all of the enjoyment and joy that we can from life - although when Jesus declared that he came that we might have life ‘in all its fullness’, I am fairly sure that he meant it in every sense. Using our time wisely means living in harmony not just with our neighbours, but with strangers and with our enemies. It means setting down those burdens that we don’t need to carry through life, and making time to build bridges and restore relationships, and simply setting aside whatever would prevent us from ‘using aright the time left to us’. Lord, give us the wisdom to put you at the centre of our lives, and the grace to use to use wisely the time which is gifted to us, Amen