Third Sunday "Get up and Walk"

 

Pelican in her Piety -
St Nicolas Church, Manston, Dorset

God was satisfied with his own work, and that is fatal.  

Samuel Butler (II), Notebooks, 1912    

Samuel Butler can get away with this irreverence because  I am confident he raises a rye smile in heaven.  As this world that slowly comes into focus, we realise that the paradoxes of life can never be avoided. The Hebraic stories acknowledge this.  Such extremes are seen; like the beauty of the ocean, that without a flicker of compassion, tips the boat over and drowns its occupants.  Humans have tried to make sense of this in so many ways.  But of course it can not make sense.  It is not designed by a human, and perhaps you have to be able to see in four dimensions, not three, to make out what is going on.  For me it starts with the simple relationship, like that between the baby and it's mother.  The baby did not choose the be born, and the mother knows this.  She gives her life blood for her baby.  And also, Butler (II) was correct, it was fatal.

Ecclesiastes Chapter Six 

This is what I find so perplexing.

Some people experience great success.

They live notable lives and have many children.

But they die, and what have they achieved? 

Sometimes nothing of what they have done is noticed.

 Others are born into poverty.

All they have to hold on to is wisdom.

 Since we cannot get what we like, let us like what we can get.

 About The Future

The Creator knows already every outcome,

Like an old much loved film.

Our lives are flickering shadows.

It’s not for us to know the outcome.

PRAYER:  Let me have a simple, trusting faith.