My visiting Sparrowhawk is back and with vengeance! He left his tell tale card, part of a bird skeleton lying on the freshly mown grass. The other sign, no bird life in the garden for 48 hours or so. Our garden is usually far from quiet because of the noise from the very busy road - the Cowbridge Road which travels up the side of our garden and yet after the Sparrowhawk's visit is seems almost deathly quiet at times. I like all wildlife, but am not keen on this Sparrowhawk!
This is nature as we have spoken about before, but it does beg the question how do we cope with the unexpected? It is something we all have to face from time to time, and we can never protect ourselves from disappointment, the unexpected. It usually just hits us and throws us, perhaps for a short while or perhaps much, much longer. The unexpected tears when you receive some shock or other, the pulling of the cords of love when circumstances change and alter. What about the shock of change of lifestyle or on a minor scale the reaction to a new hair do and perhaps its striking colour! How about when we anticipate something is wrong and have to improvise to cover the moment or the shock of someone taken seriously ill in worship? The Easter morning Eucharist where the organist collapsed and later died during the worship. I spent time this week with someone whose son is very ill and may not recover and how the parents are feeling now, swept up by shock but also having to face buried issues as a family.
We face minor disappointments and unexpected news each and every day, who just rang the doorbell or a friend cancels coffee as they are busy, but that was the thing that was getting me through this week! But we try and adapt, pick ourselves up and dust ourselves down. We may never get over it, but we adapt. Jesus too had the power to shock, healing a non-Jew, turning water to wine, answering in a unexpected way, telling his parents as a young child why he wasn't with them etc etc.
Let us try and embrace our disappointments today and let us use that unexpected situation in a new and challenging way. Let us hear the voice of God addressing us in our confusion and trust as we continue on our journey.
They had a similar thing happen on camera in Springwatch last night when a baby hare was taken in front of its parents the shock of the presenters ! I am afraid life throws these at us and we have to cope however hard it is at the time. Keep up the good work Rhian X