Sometimes, as I travel through the beautiful Suffolk countryside, dashing from one place to another I feel an enormous sense of appreciation, whether it is seeing the beauty of the yellow Rapeseed fields in the Springtime and, remarkably, early autumn now, seeing the golden fields during summer months, ripe for harvesting, the quaint villages with brightly painted thatched roofed cottages, I find that I’m pinching myself and thinking “and I am being paid to do this!” what a privilege.
I was driving to conduct a funeral during the week and drove through the village of Saxtead and it brought back memories for me. I remember coming across Saxtead Green post mill when on holiday in East Anglia, way back over forty years ago. We stopped all those years ago and had a look around the mill, windmills held a great fascination for me, coming from the industrial north, mills like this weren’t exactly commonplace, we tended to rely on the power of the fast flowing rivers instead. To me every mill with sails was a windmill, but I was soon put right when I moved to Norfolk, learning that some are actually wind pumps for draining the Fen lands and Saxtead Green mill is actually a Post Mill.
The post mill is an interesting invention dating back to as early as the twelfth century. The whole of the top section of the mill turns to face into the wind, thus maximizing it’s potential. Saxtead has an ingenius fantail, which rotates the mill automatically, while many others are rotated by hand. Driving past the mill earlier in the week got the cogwheels in my head turning. I was pondering on the new postion we find ourselves in as we work through this pandemic experience and, if I’m being honest, I’m feeling out of my depth a lot of the time, dealing with how to do what is right.
The image of the Post mill inspired me, at times like this, when we feel uncertainty, pressure to make the right decisions and trying to influence others wisely, the post Mill reminds us to turn to Jesus, the words of a chorus we used to sing.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.
I believe that we get a fresh focus on life as we turn to Christ.