Dear Friends,

I particularly like this time of year with its seasonal promise of longer and brighter days around the corner. Like many folk, I find that each year my spirits rise as I anticipate the winter months eventually giving way to spring and as I dream of summer days ahead. However, as I wait I savour those precious moments when the rays of the low sun pierce through the gloom of winter days. But, as we discovered here at the Manse today, that same welcome sun reveals all-too-clearly the dust, cobwebs and clutter that need to be swept away!

When the light of Christ shines into our lives it brings tremendous promise and hope, but it also illuminates the areas that need urgent attention and spring-cleaning. The Pharisees recoiled from Jesus for that very reason. They preferred to operate in the shadows where the flaws in their self-righteousness were safely hidden. In the blaze of His light their darker motives and their blatant hypocrisy were both revealed. However, this refusal to come into the Son’s light cut them off from the very source of eternal life.

On the other hand, the ordinary folk were drawn to the light radiated by Jesus. We too must come like them, without any pretence of being perfect or worthy, and we will find forgiveness for the sins that are exposed as His light floods in. For in that welcome and glorious light we discover God’s infinite love and we begin to get everything else in the right perspective. We rejoice in the reality that nothing can extinguish His light; we celebrate His victory over the darkness and we anticipate the brilliant radiance of the city of heaven where the black clouds of sin and despair are banished forever – ‘The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp’ (Revelation 21:23).

As I help with the spring-cleaning of our home and garden, I will be praying that God will illuminate the debris and clutter in my life that needs to be swept away so that I might move forward in my faith. I will also continue to eagerly await sunnier and longer days when the beauty of creation can be more fully enjoyed and when I can indulge in some kayaking again!

Your friend and pastor,