Jesus lived in the dust of the desert for forty days. Dust means dryness, aridity. Often, in the Bible, dust has negative associations with desolation, diminishment and decline into death. “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” However, it is also seen as the crucial raw material of life. It has echoes…

We’re approaching Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. We eat pancakes the day before on Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) as we eat up the rich fatty foods before commencing the Lenten fast. Traditionally this is the day we are ‘shriven’ or absolved of our sins after self examination. On Ash Wednesday, the…

It’s the greatest feeling in the world to know you are loved. Sometimes we say those three little words very glibly. We add it to the end of a phone call or text. Someone says it to us and we feel that we should say it back without really thinking about what we’re saying. Someone…

I’ve just re-read the story of Jesus’ first miracle, turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana. I love this story. It’s not a life and death situation. It’s to do with someone not doing their job properly, not ordering enough wine and Jesus stepping in to save their embarrassment.  It’s a story of…

Waiting at the local railway station this week, my attention was captured by a poster advertising a new film.  It read: ‘When you’re lost in the darkness, look for the light’. My mind went to one of the opening verses in John’s gospel, ‘The Word was the source of life, and this life brought light…

Psalm 91:2 ‘This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety: He is my God and I trust Him.’ People often talk about their ‘Happy Place’. Their place of choice, where they enjoy being. Maybe their friends and family are there. Maybe they are doing their favourite thing. It’s…

Today, traditionally referred to as Twelfth Night, is the day many will take down their Christmas decorations for another year. I don’t know about you, but I always anticipate having a load of time between Christmas and New Year to catch up with friends and family etc and then it seems that in a blink…

Some weeks ago, I found my diary for 1974. The first entry recorded the watch night service during which we had prayed our way into the new year almost half a century ago. As a young Christian, I was so fired up. I had pestered my grandma for a Thomson’s chain reference Bible. It was…

Martin E Leckebusch has written some updated lyrics to the traditional carol ‘O Little town of Bethlehem’.  I offer them here as a meditation at this Christmas time remembering Ukraine and all other places suffering from wars and conflict. O West Bank town of Bethlehem, How still your victims lie; The grieving weep, deprived of…

Paul doesn’t give a narrative account of the birth of Jesus but he does refer to it in his letters. In Galatians 4:4-5 he writes,” When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we…