March issue - Magazine - Page 15
Glenside
News
GlensideNews@mail.com
PARISH CHURCHES
THE CHURCHWARDEN’S LETTER
Spring is the time when farmers are sowing
much of the seed - we all know the parable
in Matthew 13. 1-9. The seed at that time
was scattered far and wide and this method
was used for many hundreds of years. What
a hit and miss way of sowing seed, thought
Jethro Tull. Surely there must be a better
way of sowing seed so that it was planted in
straight rows and all went into good
ground.
It was while he was sitting in church
that Jethro had a brilliant idea. In front of
him was the organ with its row of pipes.
Beneath each pipe was a stop, which closed
a small hole. As the key was pressed the
stop opened and allowed one note to come
out.
Soon Jethro was busy making his own
machine that he called a ‘seed drill’. It was
like a box lled with seed that had several
pipes leading from it to the ground. As the
drill was pulled, the seed dropped through
the pipes to be planted in straight rows.
Tull, who died on 21 February 1741, was
one fo the pioneers of modern farming
methods.
Today a farmer may be seen ploughing
the elds, but in this country you will rarely
see him ‘scatter the good seed on the land’.
This work is made much easier with modern
machinery. We give thanks for the seed, the
sun and the harvest - we give thanks to all
who have learned to obtain better harvests,
from the land, in the orchard, from the
desert or from the sea. Bless all who work
BIBLE VERSE
from Koleh
(disciple of Christ)
for better harvests where modern methods
are unknown and people starve. May those
who have knowledge and money help those
who have not.
Spring teases us, playing its own game
of ‘catch and release’. A few balmy, sunny
days awaken our senses to the freshness of
spring and promise of the end of winter. We
fall into bed after hours of sunshine, only to
reawaken to a lawn covered in white frost even a sprinkling of snow. Spring sun hides
behind winter clouds.
Our lives have ‘winters’, don’t they? We
live through seasons when we are troubled
with an absence of clarity. Through this,
‘winter’ can be long. But look closer - when
the sun returns it will be worth it all.
Perhaps you are in the midst of one of life’s
winters? You only have to wait. Remember,
for every winter there is a spring.
“Let us acknowledge the Lord;
let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises, he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rain,
like the spring rains that water the earth.”
Hosea 6:3
Following Fr Ed Martin’s licensing on 19
March, I hope to be welcoming him as a
resident in Castle Bytham in his role as
priest-in-charge of this benece along with
his other duties, assisted by Fr Paul Denby
and Fr Andy Hawes. We are surely ‘the
favoured ones’.
With every blessing,
Sheila Robinson
For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have
eternal life.
(John 3:16)
As we celebrate Easter, we thank you Father for your
unconditional love for us, for sending us Jesus to be our saviour
so we could live eternally with you. Amen.
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