Autumn, Abundance and Anxious Thoughts

It’s a beautiful sunny day here in Edinburgh at the moment, but Autumn is in the air and where I live the trees are starting to turn. I always find Autumn an interesting time: a poignant mix of beauty alongside the impending darkness of winter. Some of us will be battling depression before the winter is out. I can’t deny that for me winter is a challenge but I want to hold this alongside the joy of cosy winter evenings by the fire and the sparkling lights of Christmas as we celebrate the Light of the World who came to push back the darkness in our lives.

We’ve got Harvest Festival at church this Sunday and we’re going to be looking at Matthew 6:25-34. It’s a well-known passage that reminds us not to worry: our physical and mental health, our safety and security, our wants and needs are all known by God. Sometimes we have to deal with difficult things. But there’s no point making today harder by worrying about tomorrow! “Can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life?” (Matt 6:27) Easy to say it – some of us find it hard to do at times. And after the last 18 months we know that uncertainty is part of life on earth, however fortunate we are.

So I took to my journal with some washi tape and stickers. It always has a calming effect! As my page progressed, I remembered again how much I have to be thankful for, how deeply I know that, even in the face of some terrible things, I can trust God. The winter will come as it always does, and Christ the Light will be there in the middle of it, whatever else the next few months will bring. So ‘do not worry about your life’ says the Gospel. “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well!”