VICAR

Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I leave for You today a prayer for Spring. As I sit here suffering from a flu sent from the fiery pits of hell, which neither Lemsip nor a hot toddy seems to make even a dent in, I ask for Your forgiveness for my short contribution to this fine magazine this week.

I wonder whether my flu is Australian? Images of Rolf Harris and the 2003 World Cup spring to mind in a temperature-driven delirium. I see kangaroos in the garden.

I trust I shall be in better form next week. I wish You a wonderful week and do ask that You pray for my recuperation and those others who are unwell. Also let us pray for the arrival of some decent weather to rid us of this Siberian gulag – which has befallen upon us and the rest of suffering Europe, killing people, especially the homeless.

Dear Lord,

Spring is a metaphor for change. Some changes we eagerly await, and some we abhor. Some changes we plan and others arrive uninvited. To all these changes we ask the gift of Your perspective beckoning us to expectation, hope, and rebirth.

May the sunlight and the rain be reminders that You are at work renewing the earth. As a God of renewal, You are ever at work in our lives, too.

Please open our eyes and lives to the needed changes in our lives this Spring. Awaken us to new life and perspective, for we pray in Jesus’ name.

Amen.