O LORD, what is man that you care for him, the son of man that you think of him? Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow (Psalm 144.3-4).It is great to be here again in Bulgaria, joining with Sam and Sally in our house in Mezdreya and having the team come out to join us, from Bristo. I’m sitting in the garden right now, looking out at the incredible growth there has been since we were last here in April. The vegetables, the fruit trees, the grass, the flowers – and the weeds! Everything is green and growing with such profusion.
And it really makes me reflect on the lack of permanency there is to anything in the life that surrounds us. One minute – summer. And then, in six months, the barrenness of winter will be here. Living in the city, it’s so easy to miss this aspect of the seasons. Surrounded by monumental buildings and historic monuments, the illusion is there of a life that goes on with confidence and unwavering changelessness; but it is not so. The country and the village unmasks the illusion.
And where now I sit, I face the central Balkan mountains and think of Serbia on the other side, with all the tragedy and genocide of the ethnic wars that seems only yesterday. The destruction that a sinning, self-assertive and rebellious humanity is capable of engulfing itself in.
At such a time, it is good to remember what it means to be a Christian. To recall that God has not so much ‘crafted’ as ‘is crafting’. Forming and shaping and bringing through to a maturity and permanency that will be expressed in a renewed Creation, a ‘New Heavens and New Earth’.
For the moment, all is passing. But high summer, and a deeper and fuller fruitfulness awaits us. Слава на Бога! Praise the Lord!
