St Luke’s View

Dear Friends

I heard recently of an elderly lady who was very fond of her garden. In general, she could keep it the way she wanted. But from time to time, she enlisted the help of a young gardener friend. Then one day she decided to plant a new shrub in the back garden. She started off well enough but then the task got more taxing. Suddenly, the work got too much for her not least because of the strong wind now blowing. She wished for an extra pair of hands with all her heart. Then unexpectedly she heard a voice behind her – ‘Hello, I had a feeling you were going to need me today’. It was Joe the gardener. Without further ado he picked up a spade and completed easily the work in hand. Later over a cup of tea, she confided that she was mightily glad that Joe had turned up – ‘ a true friend is someone who comes in adversity without invitation’.

And there is the message for a post-Easter world. For if we look around we see many who are ‘soldiering on’, making do  and just keeping going. Maybe you feel the same way under some unspoken of burden. Yet the great news of Christ risen is that we always have a willing friend. Now sometimes we don’t see that friend around and sometimes we are not around for that friend. But in our adversity or just when the task seems too big for us, he comes around the corner without invitation and says - I had a feeling you might need me today. All we then need do is let him help without further ado.  For, as Elizabeth Gozney writes:

Lone no longer, now the journey,

Going, forth into the night;

God sends faith to walk beside you,

Leads you with His guiding light…

With every blessing

Graham