Revd Sue Cooper writes:
Hello Everyone, I hope you are keeping your Spirits up as the long dark nights of winter begin to recede slightly. Very soon the first signs of Spring will appear, and show us that new life is beginning to pop up all around us, and this brings us new hope and fresh energy.
February has two major events; Valentine’s Day, when love and romance are celebrated, and Ash Wednesday which is the beginning of the season of Lent in the Church cycle of seasons. It’s hard to imagine two more opposite things to try to bring together, but it is love that brings these two events together. There are many kinds of love, and all of us, at some level, want to be loved. And the good news for every person on the face of the earth is that God loves us. But not everyone knows this, and even if we do know this, often we do not feel God’s love.
Many times in life we will feel disconnected from God, and we will feel as if God is distant from us. But God hasn’t gone anywhere, he is still there loving us as he always has. And God wants you to know his love, and he wants you to feel his love for you too. However, in any relationship, to know and feel the love of another we must have some kind of continuing contact with them. So for example, I know in my head that my family love me,,, but I feel that love in my heart and my whole being when I call to speak to them, or receive a phone call or a text or card from one of them. In other words we need to keep communicating otherwise we begin to feel distant and disconnected from each other. And it’s the same with God; to feel his love we need to keep speaking to him and communicating with him. God loves us, and no matter how bad we sometimes feel about ourselves, God still loves us, and wants to help us through our journey in this life and to one day bring us home to himself. God is always there for us, and he is only ever one prayer away from us at any time. So at any time we can speak to God and tell him we are sorry for letting it go for so long without praying or communicating with him, and that we want to start afresh and continue our day, and our lives with him.
Happy Valentine’s Day. And may we all know, and feel, Gods love for us each and every day. With love Rev Sue.