Thought for the Week: The healing power
Brenda Claxton reflects on Advices & queries 2
Earlier this year, one Sunday morning in late February, Bath Meeting House was cold. The heating had broken down and a decision was made to cut the Meeting for Worship to half an hour. In these freezing, unpropitious conditions a Friend, Christine, read out Advices & queries 2:
‘Bring the whole of your life under the ordering of the spirit of Christ. Are you open to the healing power of God’s love? Cherish that of God within you so that this love may grow in you and guide you. Let your worship and your daily life enrich each other. Treasure your experience of God, however it comes to you. Remember that Christianity is not a notion but a way.’
On the Monday morning after Meeting, as I sat by my bedroom window, I found my copy of Advices & queries and read these words again. At the time I was prompted to record some thoughts in my diary and I would like to share my experience, all those long months ago:
‘Hearing the words spoken, sitting in Meeting, they had come alive, and meaning flowed. But reading them to myself on another cold and frosty morning, the words had become flat, without content or meaning. So, I decided to read them aloud to myself. I repeated the paragraph again and again, and once more they became alive – meaning and light flowed with the words.
‘This brief paragraph seems to contain all I need to know. I decided to end my reading with the sentences: “Let your worship and daily life enrich each other. Treasure your experience of God, however it comes to you.”
‘Now, my life and the world became real. Watching the birds, a big fat pigeon takes wing and flies across my window. Two exquisite gold finches feed on the nigella seeds and then sit on a nearby branch to digest their food. Sparrows, fat and brown, are difficult to distinguish when they forage on the earth beneath the seed feeders. Then a magpie, spreading its black and white wings, arrives to scavenge what is left over from the smaller birds’ breakfast.
‘Each leaf is a miracle. Even the cold frost, turning the water in the birdbath into a solid block of ice, is a miracle beyond my comprehension. And this is just what I can see at this moment in time from my chair beside the window. As I write, a woodpecker lands and attempts to feed from the greenfinches’ feeder, then flies away to a more satisfying meal of peanuts. Its black and white plumage perfectly, architecturally, designed. A loud red spot just above its tail appears to be shouting at me, though what it might be saying I cannot tell. Suddenly, the woodpecker is gone. This, for me, represents my experience of God. I often find God in nature, in the unfathomable beauty around me in the natural world.
‘The words have now become a prayer, which I can repeat whenever I wish. I have found an antidote for all the terrible news that bombards me daily. These prayers may help to keep me sane in the mad world created by humanity: “Let your worship and daily life enrich each other. Treasure your experience of God, however it comes to you.” Suddenly, unexpectedly, the woodpecker is back on the nuts.’
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