The link for this week's live-streamed service is here.
On a bleak, wet, foggy, dark day last week I read a post that began with the words, "snowdrop walk." I cheered up immediately, and resolved to go on my own walk in search of snowdrops.
I found these ones at my neighbour's front door.
These were right across the road.
These were in Dominion Brook Park, just a block and a half from Saanich Peninsula Presbyterian Church.
Even though I was in search of snowdrops, I couldn't help but add this dash of brilliant colour from a camellia bush.
As a bonus, the flowers grew by a stream, so sight was enhanced by sound, the rush and gurgle of flowing water. Life!
On an impulse, I checked out our church yard, and, sure enough, there were a few brave little blossoms nodding their heads beneath the big cedar in our parking lot.
How often do we search far afield for a treasure, only to find that it is right in front of us all along?
Over the Christmas season, I made several trips to Victoria, thinking I'd find the perfect gift in one of the big malls, or maybe on Government Street. More often than not, I came home disappointed, only to find what I sought was right there on Beacon Avenue in Sidney.
Modern culture is obsessed with "success." Papers, magazines, the internet … open any one of them and you'll find a formula for "success" - in business, in relationships, in health, in fame -- with the guarantee that "this" path will lead you to happiness. Such stories sell products but I doubt they really create happiness for readers.
This TED talk, posits that happiness come first and success, however you define that, will follow.
Our Wednesday study raised the question of whether the Kingdom of God is some longed for utopia in the future, or whether if is here now, on earth. Jesus addressed that question in Luke 17: 20-21 Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, ‘The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, “Here it is,” or “There it is,” because the kingdom of God is in your midst.
I pondered that notion while I searched for snowdrops, and found I was in the midst of them.
In 2014 I posted "Signs of Hope" on this blog. Most of the photos showed spring flowers pushing through a snowdrift. But one showed a determined little tree growing out of the top of a fence post. While looking for snowdrops, I went back to see what had become of the tree.
It's still there, still surviving in a hostile environment, still soaking up the sunshine and the rain. It made me very happy.
