Wednesday 7th April 2021: In a Garden

 

Last week, on Good Friday afternoon, as I was dog walking in the sunshine on Chorleywood Common, I heard singing from the grounds of Christchurch.  It was lovely to see this Christian community take advantage of recent Government guidelines enabling them to sing outdoors on their own premises at a special service remembering the cross.

Since then I think a lot of people have been meeting up outside with family and friends, even in the snowy conditions of recent days; gloves and blankets at the ready!

Part of my upbringing was attending an open-air service, every year, at dawn on Easter Sunday.  My church organised it and I suspect if you were keen enough to be there at 5am it became something of a badge of honour!  It did have the unfortunate consequence of some of us then sleeping through the minister’s sermon at the 11 o’clock service later that morning.

I was amused by a comment in the Church Times stating that from Easter we would be allowed to meet up in gardens.  It struck me as entirely appropriate as such a meeting was part of the very first Easter, with Mary thinking the risen Lord was indeed a ‘Gardener’!
 

Last spring and summer taught many of us, or at least acted as a poignant reminder, that being outside and close to nature can be very comforting in times of anxiety.  I’d always thought it rather sentimental, but during that first lockdown it was certainly true for me at that time that one felt ‘closer to God in a garden than anywhere else on earth’.

With all good wishes at this Easter season,

 

Ian

ps Blog Holiday next week