By Rev. Diana Boland
In the month of May, we in this area of the country, breathe a collective sigh of relief. ‘At last, it might just be summer.’
The weekend we celebrate May 24 is the time when many gardeners flood the garden centres and start planting in earnest. It seems we all have that pent up energy after such a long and cold winter, to spend time outside and appreciate the wonder of nature. How could anything survive through the winter we have just had? But it does, and we are thankful that God provides again for another year.
I am reminded of Psalm 95:
9 You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water; you provide the people with grain, for so you have prepared it.10 You water its furrows abundantly,settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.
The psalm speaks about the physical gifts God gives us, and we thank God in prayer for these.
And Jesus also promises us life in abundance, life in all its fullness. Jesus says in John 10:10b:
I came that they might have life and have it more abundantly.
This abundance refers to an abounding fullness of joy and strength for our spirit, soul and body. It is a spiritually rich, purposeful life that starts immediately upon trusting God, rather than on material gifts.
The context of John 10:10 is that Jesus contrasts his promise of abundant life with “the thief," who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. It is the difference between a stolen existence and a rich, purposeful life. There are always challenges to living a purposeful life in Christ.
As William Shakespeare so aptly put it —
“Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May.”
(Sonnet 18)
Let our prayers today be thanks to God for the abundance of life in the spirit that he gives us, and for strength to weather the rough winds that inevitably come into our lives. May our lives instead be filled with the abundant fruits of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Rev. Diana Boland is an AFP Executive and Vicar of St. James in St Marys and Holy Trinity, Stratford.