Just after a recent light snowfall I noticed that the snow had melted more quickly on a growing crop than on a grassy footpath. Most of the time we barely notice the effect of all our footsteps on the environment around us but here was a good illustration of the legacy of ramblers, dog-walkers, family outings and more.
Each passing pedestrian makes a minute contribution to soil compaction and so the path is harder, the grass less springy and the volume of air trapped in the plants markedly less than in the wheat beside the path. The leafy plants of the crop combined with the more friable soil texture create a warmer environment and so a quicker thaw – or that is my theory and in the absence of a better one I will stick with it.
In our daily lives we follow common routes but do we ever stop to ask ourselves whether the crowded place may not be less hospitable than being somewhere a little different or less popular. Writers often comment on the absence of human interaction on the tube train or the bus, where everyone is in the same place but coldly distant, each in a private world and going about the business of the day like an automaton. Rammed hard by overuse there is no warmth in the environment.
Go into a church and instead of a seemingly faceless mass of populus there is a warm smile to greet us, an interested heart to welcome us so we thaw out while still being only a step away from the busy world. Or am I dreaming? If we are Church people, are we aware of having the space to breathe; if we are not Church people, is that how we see Churches?
There is more space away from the path than on it, more of the soil in the picture is warming than is frozen, just as there is more that is good in life than not, even in a world that at present seems rather frightening.
A Prayer
Lord, when I feel numbed cold by life give me the wisdom to step off the busy path into the warmth of your presence. Thank you that you are in the peace of the church building or in the space of open field. Thank you that you are beside us as we make our way through life.