Kia ora,
We spend a lot of time in our lives looking for things. Small things – a pen, the phone, car keys, sun glasses; right through to the most precious things – wedding rings, special heirlooms, stray pets…
I remember those moments when I realised I did not know where on earth it is… the desperate and fruitless search, the sense of loss, hopelessness – what will I do without it?
Then the outpouring of joy in the moment when what is lost is found again! Something to celebrate and a renewed sense of gratefulness for what I have.
In our gathering this week we skip over some of those smaller losses and dive straight into a story of lost relationship, where loving bonds are stretched and torn, and it seems there may be no pathway back to restore what is lost.
We have to do a lot of relationship restoration in our lives, we do it every day, in the smallest things we experience right through to the biggest and most painful hurts. We do it as individuals, as families, as communities, and as nations. It is part of being human, part of being in community, part of understanding the divine. To follow the way of Jesus, where love and justice embrace, is to seek at personal, community and worldwide levels, to create ‘right relationship’.
As we continue to ‘Zoom’ through the season of Lent, let us join together online to try to learn more, and understand better this reconciling journey.
Paul Barber
If you’d like to read the full E-newsletter please click here: https://mailchi.mp/db5f1e27b160/this-weeks-newsletter-from-st-andrews-on-the-terrace-8864529
