Beware the little earwigs

I heartily recommend the film LION to you…… a very moving portrayal of the true story of a young illiterate boy called Saroo from a tiny village in Northern India who ends up by accident 1000’s of miles away from his home, his mother, brother and sister and unable to find his way back for over 20 years.  Unable to pronounce his own name correctly, unable to remember the correct name of his village, unable to speak Bengali and knowing his Mother only as ‘Mum’ he goes through some very sad experiences, ending up in an Orphanage before being adopted by a lovely couple in Tasmania. 

The little things matter don’t they…… maybe if he had known his own name, the name of his village or his mum the story might have been different but as it is it takes 20 years and the invention of google maps to reunite them……. no I haven't spoilt the story, the truth is out there in the public domain and it is a brilliant, moving and very hopeful film!  

So the little things……as you may know Storm are busy gardeners…… we have several plots around town, on the seafront, by St Paul’s, Guildford Road and -  if that wasn’t enough - an allotment!!  And of course this is silly growing season - sunshine and rain - amazing combination and everything is going crazy especially the grass. At which point our electric mower broke down!  The lovely Mick Cassell, affectionately known as Mr Fix-it, set about mending it.  Everything was taken apart, cleaned, oiled put back, taken out again, cleaned, oiled again, grumbled over, put back to no avail… hours were spent and hope was fading… then a thought… we had got power back but no motion, now the power was lost, maybe have a look in the plug! where was found a family of earwigs stopping any power getting through!  Mower fixed… the little things!

 There are some famous words written about relationships - which if you think about it are at the heart of everything we see going on in our lives and in our world - and they are these “Catch for us the little foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom”.  It’s the little things if unnoticed and unaddressed that can spoil a relationship so quickly and it seems they often appear when everything is blooming.  Sometime we may need help to recognise them - which is where being part of an open and supportive community can be so helpful

We, in Storm are in the middle of a year of looking at the subject of HOPE. Having established the origins of our HOPE during the Autumn Term, the reasons for our HOPE during the Spring Term we are now considering the source of our HOPE.  So we are looking at the Holy Spirit, God in us helping us to change and do life and relationships well.  One of Jesus’ friends Peter who is probably most famous for getting things wrong, wrote these words in later life “His divine power has given us everything we need for LIFE and godliness.”  If you would like to do LIFE well, please do journey with us as we consider this and feel free to join us once a fortnight at 4.30pm at St Paul’s Worthing.