By Canon Cate Edmonds,
The weather over the past week or so has been glorious and hopefully it has brought some cheer at this desperate time. Those of you who have been able to go for a walk have no doubt appreciated the dry ground rather than the mud of the last few months. I have delighted in the fact that I can walk my dogs and they don’t come back completely covered in mud. I have also appreciated that the sun has highlighted the glorious countryside around us. In particular this year I have noticed so many celandines. In fact my front lawn is covered in them and the local verges are as well. Perhaps it’s because we have had so much wet weather this winter that to see their head pushing up through the dark grass is a real joy, but it also serves to remind us that through darkness can come bright light. Their glowing faces give me great hope.
God’s creation is wonderful and we can receive so many messages from it, no wonder Jesus used nature in many of his stories and parables. Psalm 19 verse 1 “the firmament proclaims his handiwork”, looking around us at nature it certainly does.
In this time of uncertainty, where we are not sure what the next news bulletin will reveal to us, let’s not get bogged down, but look to the humble celandine to lift our spirit. The ones we see around us are the lesser celandines, described as cheery, bright star like flowers with 8 petals. Let’s use them to remember that star in the sky that led the wise men to our Lord and Saviour and let us too be led onwards and let’s use each of the eight petals to think of 8 blessings we have and be thankful. Yes it’s a tough time at the moment but the celandine is a perennial, it dies back and pushes up through the cold wet earth of winter to shine forth its glory. Let us too push on through this dark time and shine forth God’s glory and blessings.