As I write my wee piece for the Bulletin the sun is shining, the sky is blue and it is a beautiful day. I have the day off work as I am about to go to the Diocesan Synod in Ballybofey. It will be a long day!
Out the window the trees have lost almost all their leaves and I can see the neighbour’s house again. The trees look totally different without their leaves. Just long thin branches providing no shelter or cover. Nothing is hidden anymore, and any birds in the trees can be seen. I must admit I much prefer a lovely leaf-covered tree with lots of colour and life, rather than a shell of branches and little else.
I wonder what we would be like if every year we lost our covering and people could see what we are really like. I don’t mean our clothes by the way. I mean the facade we all wear which hides our true feelings, our thoughts and our wishes. If people could see the real me, what would they think?
I am pretty sure that you would not like the real me. I think all sorts of things, I get annoyed (inwardly) over unimportant issues and I worry about problems that don’t even exist. I am human!! But God sees the real me. God knows exactly what I am like. He knows my innermost thoughts and he has known me even before I was born. The psalmist tells us that our God created us and that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Imagine. We are fearfully and wonderfully made – and God loves us. So although I do all sorts of things wrong and don’t do many things I should, God loves me as I am. He also loves you.
Again as I look out the window I see birds flying about the sky, the few leaves left are blowing gently in the breeze and it is beautiful. We live in a lovely world, created by God and given to us to look after. May we continue to appreciate all that we have, and give thanks to God for our world, our neighbours, our family and friends and for ourselves. We are important to God and therefore we should be
important to each other.
God bless.
Adam