The Greatest Family on Earth
What a busy year 2017 was! So many family occasions – 3 grandchildren and a nephew were married, and a new great-grandson born – my ninth! The year began with the good news that the two surgeons have given me the all clear, and didn’t need to see me again. Prayers of thanks were said and Hallelujahs sung, then it was down to business planning for my 90th birthday – to our delight Charlie and Heidi came and brought the most lovely weather with them, and reminiscences of the time the Grosse Pointe youngsters came – when are you coming again, the church is waiting for you! We are a family that love to get together, and weddings are a good opportunity to catch up on news and events and to share and care for each other. The church has its place in the life of our extended family too, and I am convinced therein lies our strength and hope.
I am writing these notes for Lent 2018 even before Advent 2017, but that is the demands of publishing I’m afraid. This means that when you read my comments, we shall have celebrated Christmas – the beginning of the greatest family on Earth. God chose to come into an Earthly family and was loved and nourished by a human mother and father, and shared his home with brothers and sisters. Let us not forget this in our daily living, and pray that God, through Jesus, will become part of our Earthly family too.
Dorothy Williams, Newton Abbot, England
Behold us, Lord, a little space
From daily tasks set free,
And met within thy holy place
To rest awhile with thee.
Yet these are not the only walls
Wherein thou mayst be sought;
On homeliest work thy blessing falls,
in truth and patience wrought.
Thine is the loom, the forge, the mart,
The wealth of land and sea,
The worlds of science and of art,
Revealed and ruled by thee.
Then let us prove our heavenly birth,
In all we do and know;
And claim the kingdom of the Earth
For thee and not thy foe.
Work shall be prayer, if all be wrought
As thou wouldst have it done,
And prayer, by thee inspired and taught,
Itself with work be one.
John Ellerton (1826-93), Hymns and Psalms #376
What a busy year 2017 was! So many family occasions – 3 grandchildren and a nephew were married, and a new great-grandson born – my ninth! The year began with the good news that the two surgeons have given me the all clear, and didn’t need to see me again. Prayers of thanks were said and Hallelujahs sung, then it was down to business planning for my 90th birthday – to our delight Charlie and Heidi came and brought the most lovely weather with them, and reminiscences of the time the Grosse Pointe youngsters came – when are you coming again, the church is waiting for you! We are a family that love to get together, and weddings are a good opportunity to catch up on news and events and to share and care for each other. The church has its place in the life of our extended family too, and I am convinced therein lies our strength and hope.
I am writing these notes for Lent 2018 even before Advent 2017, but that is the demands of publishing I’m afraid. This means that when you read my comments, we shall have celebrated Christmas – the beginning of the greatest family on Earth. God chose to come into an Earthly family and was loved and nourished by a human mother and father, and shared his home with brothers and sisters. Let us not forget this in our daily living, and pray that God, through Jesus, will become part of our Earthly family too.
Dorothy Williams, Newton Abbot, England
Behold us, Lord, a little space
From daily tasks set free,
And met within thy holy place
To rest awhile with thee.
Yet these are not the only walls
Wherein thou mayst be sought;
On homeliest work thy blessing falls,
in truth and patience wrought.
Thine is the loom, the forge, the mart,
The wealth of land and sea,
The worlds of science and of art,
Revealed and ruled by thee.
Then let us prove our heavenly birth,
In all we do and know;
And claim the kingdom of the Earth
For thee and not thy foe.
Work shall be prayer, if all be wrought
As thou wouldst have it done,
And prayer, by thee inspired and taught,
Itself with work be one.
John Ellerton (1826-93), Hymns and Psalms #376
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