Devonshire January February 19

Guest Editor
HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL
Catherine Tate once said, “if you give up drinking and smoking, you don’t
live longer - it just feels like it”. If your January is resolvedly dry and
abstemious after all the Christmas excess, it can be a long, miserable
month, to be trudged wearily through. There’s Yuck Monday (7th
January) and Blue Monday, officially forecast as the most depressing
day of 2019 (21st January). By mid-February - I don’t know about you
- but I’ve had enough of the dark, cold, grey days. I can be lethargic
and listless, (and I envy fellow mammals that can hibernate). I long
for Six Nations Rugby, and spring, light, new life and colour. Even the
beautiful East Devon countryside seems dull and lifeless, in sympathy
with the prevailing mood.
But, you may say, aren’t vicars supposed to cheer us all up with a bit of
hope ?!
And we certainly could do with a bit of hope for 2019. What with
political crises, Brexit, an overstretched NHS, and, most of all - with
plastic pollution, global warming, alarmed conservationists, floods
and fires, wars and famines - 2018 didn’t bode well for the future. Of course, there are many who do
their utmost heroically to give hope to the earth - researchers, volunteers, conservationists, recyclers,
environmentalists all around the world. And the movement to recycle more and act responsibly
continues to grow (maybe that’s among your New Year resolutions). But continuing human greed
and political obstinacy results in depressingly little change. We need a new earth.
Do you ever wish we could start again ? Do you ever dream of a new world without pollution – and
without terrorism and famine, sickness and injustice, pain, sorrow, and death ??
And here’s the hope ! In nature, the recreation we long for happens every year ! Yes – it is dark, dull
and lifeless now - but we know in spring the natural world revives with light, new life and colour.
We don’t doubt springtime - it’s a certain hope. It won’t disappoint us. And spring is a sign of God’s
intention to do something new with the earth. Moreover, Jesus during his earthly life miraculously
took away pain and suffering, evil and injustice, sickness and death. He said, “take a look – I’m making
all things new.” The Bible describes such a dream world as a real world - promised by God, started
by Jesus, giving real hope. Amazingly, you and I are invited to join in. We can be remade – a fresh
start and a new way of living is ours to receive, and on demonstration (very inadequately) at a church
near you. Why not resolve to find out more this year ?
Rev’d Steve Weston
Otter Vale Mission Community
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