From our current Newsletter Rector’s Reflection –
Colours of the Wind
You can own the earth and still
All you'll own is earth until
You can paint with all the colours of
the wind
I
wonder how many of you remember where these words come from, and yes they are
from that Disney movie ‘Pocahontas’. Our girls loved this film when they were
little and leant to sing the song and its one that has always stuck in my mind
too, because to me its speaks of the need to be open to ‘colours of the wind’
to the colours of the mighty rushing wind that blew through the lives of Jesus’ disciples that first Pentecost, that will blow through our lives if only we let them.
It
seems to me that intentional or not the song picks up on so much that is wrong
in our world today, when the endless pursuit of growth, of possessions, seems
to make us unhappier by the year. When the noise of life dims the colours, the
message the Holy Spirit can bring to us all.
Pentecost
presents us with an opportunity to pause, to consider how we are living each
day. Are we relying on the power of God’s Spirit? Are we an open channel for
the Spirit’s gifts? Are we attentive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit? Is the
fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, etc.) growing in our lives? Most
Christians, including me,(I hope) try to live as if we are always aware of the
calling of the Spirit, but is this true? how often are we unable to hear its
call, to feel its gentle breeze, to see its glowing colours. We are limited by
our fear, our fear of seeing more that the mundane the ordinary, and by our
tendency to be distracted from God’s work in us. Pentecost offers a chance to
confess our failure to live by the Spirit and to ask the Lord to fill us afresh
with his power.
For
the Holy Spirit can bring freshness and colour to our lives, no matter how
tired and weary we maybe, so as we move from the season of Easter to Pentecost
and into the long summer and autumn of ordinary time may we seek, not just to
be open to the ‘colours of the wind’ of the spirit, but to use them to paint
and make our lives and the lives of those around us and those we pray for more
beautiful than they have ever been.
With
every blessing
Liz
