View from the Manse

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Dear friends,

Most Mondays I see an image on my Facebook feed which poses this question: "Where
did you find God this weekend?"

Sometimes it is easy to answer, especially now we can sing in church. But more often the answer lies in those chance encounters or conversations with people, or even the unexpected silences with the opportunity to notice something in creation.

Where did you find God this weekend? The question not only invites an answer, but also an opportunity to give thanks to God, an opportunity for joy. Could we add to this, where did find joy this weekend? Or love, or the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit?

Hindsight, they say, is a very useful thing. Often with God, it is as we look back over the weekend, the weeks, months, years that we are able to see what God has been doing in our lives and the lives of those we love or meet regularly. It is a bit of a mystery that sometimes, in that very moment we hardly notice God at all! Yet God promises to be with us in all things at all times.

So where do we most often notice God or see God at work among us? How aware are we that God often chooses us to be the means of his blessing? There is a character in a TV drama who frequently says he doesn't believe in coincidences. That may be true, but more and more I have come to believe in God-incidences. So often several things fall into place at the right moment at the right time, and that feels like a blessing from God. And it happens too often to be mere coincidence.

Perhaps we need to take that original question "Where did you find God this weekend?" and not restrict it to a weekend, but rather keep asking it so that we can share with others everything that God is doing among us.

In the letter to the Galatians, Paul writes that the fruit of the Spirit of God is love, joy, peace and many other things too. As we become more aware of the God who loves us and surrounds us, my prayer is that we will know more keenly and more deeply his love, joy and peace. And that we will want to share with others the stories of our encounters with God.

Wishing you all every blessing,

Ian