Higgedly Piggedly - Perfectly Orderly!

It’s a dream: a shady wood, lit by the speckled sunlight breaking through the stooping, crooked, branches above our heads; bluebells, queens of the wood, dressed in royal purple, bow their gracious heads, whilst golden-yellow celandines and pearls of pure-white sorrel and wood anemones provide a rich carpet between  the windy paths that follow uneven contours of hump and hollow; and here’s a broken bough and there an aging tree lies fallen, angled, rested, refuge to a myriad of tiny creeping creatures; a trickling stream wends restfully upon its well-scoured furrowed bed while birches show off their silvery bark; each tree has a character of its own; horse chestnuts’ crumpled fresh-green emerald leaves stretch forth and aspiring larches reach towards the sky.  A delightful world: God’s world.

The park, the formal garden, planted in rows, straight as a dye – not God’s way! Our streets are straight or follow the uniform curve of a surveyors’ plan. Not God!

This wood, a wonderfully disordered, chaotic, full of surprises, masterpiece but underneath I perceive a perfect order, a cycle of life and decay with nothing wasted, coordinated – pure genius.

I soak all this in on this bright sunlit May afternoon. Meanwhile, a wealth of birdsong, un-orchestrated, fills the air whilst silently and stealthily, a tree creeper busily creeps up, around, the trunk of a nearby tree.

 We humans want to organised, to control; it can be good. But let’s not forget God’s ‘way’, the disorderly, orderly. Let life break out, break out from underneath, from all around; let’s leave room for inspiration, for God’s new things; let’s take direction from the unlikely and be a grass-roots church and live  - expecting God’s surprises!

Wispy Clouds ... Tiny Whispers

I have a self-imposed, inward principle I try to follow:

      Catch inspirations     
              while they're here
               act on them quick
                  they'll disappear!

 Inspirations appear, often from nowhere, like wispy, little clouds appearing in the sky, swept along by high winds and so, so soon, blown out of sight. So … grab hold of them and act on them. If not, they may well disappear and even if you remember them sometime later, they may seem empty and it’s easy to find an excuse not to do anything with them.

Ah, let me quote Amy Carmichael yet again: “Don’t only read and pray; LISTEN. And don’t evade the slightest whisper of guidance that comes. God make your very sensitive, and very obedient.” (Whispers of His Power.)

It is often our response to these wispy clouds, these tiny whispers, that opens doors to new opportunities, bringing joy, fruitfulness and fulfillment – not only to ourselves but to others as well.