February reflection

Dear Friends

Long ago and far away, well, in about 2006 and in Beeston actually, I took a school assembly. It was an infant school in the first week of the January term and the children were extremely keen, bright and hanging on my every word.

It being the New Year, I’d prepared a talk on resolutions and I asked the children what resolutions they could make which would make school a better place.  

A sea of eager hands went up. Great, I thought; I’d planned in my mind what their answers would be. They didn’t comply with that at all. The first answer was, “We could paint the walls”. It wasn’t quite what I’d got in mind but I encouraged them to offer more suggestions. “We could paint the walls yellow”, said one, “Pink” said yet one more and “White”, said the last.

I can tell you that I thought I’d lost the plot. Those children weren’t fitting in with my plans, they weren’t coming up with the resolutions that I thought they should come up with. I thought I’d failed.

But, the teacher who was with me said that it was great, that the children and myself were on a roll, because the children were thinking for themselves, they were thinking out of the box.

Thinking out of the box; have you ever tried doing something in a completely different way to normal? Have you ever looked at someone and thought, “Well I’d never have expected her to say or do that”.   Have you ever prayed to God and been totally amazed, knocked sideways, by the way God has answered?  

It is quite likely. Whenever we try to put God into a box, God will break out of it. Whenever we decide what God should be doing, God will challenge us. This is what we saw back at Christmas when God turned up in a manger and surprising strangers turned up to see him.  

In church we will see this more and more over the next month while we prepare for Easter. At Easter, God smashed open every box that people tried to fasten him into. Even though Easter Day is over two months away, it’s not too soon to be thinking about it.

Thinking out of the box? Doing the unexpected? That’s God’s speciality, talk to one of us or come along to church to find out more.

God bless you all

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Visitors

The Church will be open to visitors most Friday mornings from about 9.45 am to 11.30 am.

We are doing this because we have received many requests and are anxious to meet people’s needs. It will give you an opportunity to have a time of peace and reflection or to talk to someone about the Church and its Services are just about your own needs.

We look forward to meeting you.