Car Park Views.... Advent Pausing.

Tuesday 8.30am

At the back of our church building is a park, a chimney, some trees and a railway line..... 

Well that's what the photos show. 

Ever since I've lived here I have loved the view from the car park. It feels so Ramsbottom - it's speaks of the town's past with the chimney that looks back to the time of the cotton mills the town grew on, and it's steam train line that, before the main train line closed would take people from Ramsbottom north or south, connecting them with people from far afield. It speaks of the towns present with the glimpses of the swimming baths and the park that reflects the attractiveness of the town to young families..... 

And....in a way, it speaks of its future... because as the past is celebrated with the stories of the mills and the steam train and as the present is lived on on the slide and the swings, the trees, they quietly, in their own tree like way grow.... following the rhythm of the seasons, each year growing differently, losing branches and raising their tops a little bit more. 

Thursday 8.30am

I love the view from the car park and often take a photo when the sky is beautiful at dawn or when the snow sparkles in the light of the sun... at Christmas and Easter that view speaks of the new life that Jesus brings.... and when I arrive early for a service, preparing for the day, it lifts me and inspires me to worship. 

There are days, however, when that view is not worth a photo, or is it? Two or three times a week I arrive at the church building about 8.30am and at this time of year, it's as the light is beginning to show.... so this week I decided that I would take a photo every time I arrived about that time and see how the picture changes.... being more attentive even on those days when it is not beautiful to the slow changes and inspiring stillness in the park, the chimney, the trees and the railway line. 

Today (Saturday) 8.30am

This morning, as the 1st December crept up on us, my photo was the least inspiring one yet...grey, dull and rainy.... proper Ramsbottom weather..... but it reminded me, that in advent, as we wait, as we look ahead, as the glitter and the sparkle rises and the momentum builds, that while we walk through life, where not every day brings bright sun or rainbows, that as we plod on, there is a promise that the new dawn will come. 

This advent, perhaps is a time to be more attentive.... not to the stories of the past, which are evident in the chimneys and the train line, nor the stories of the present, which are silent on a grey day as everyone hides inside, but to the stories of the future, which in our distraction, we miss, as the slow changes in the trees in the rhythms of the seasons pass us by..... 

Stop.... look at the familiar view.... what do you see? Where are the glimmers of hope and light in the seeming stillness... in the nothing happening.... that speak of the future that will be?


‘Arise, shine, for your light has come,
    and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
2 See, darkness covers the earth
    and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you
    and his glory appears over you.
3 Nations will come to your light,
    and kings to the brightness of your dawn'.  Isaiah 60:1-3

What makes you beautiful?

When we think of the word beauty we often go first for looks – what is beautiful to our eyes. The beautiful person who dazzles us. The sparkly shoes that glimmer in the corner of my living room. The building that we walk into and makes us go ‘wow!’. Beauty is standing on the top of the hill and seeing creation unfold before you. It’s looking at the trees and seeing how they grow. It's in Mathematics – the completion of equations, the way everything holds together.

But beauty is not only about looks. There is a more holistic feeling to beauty. Beauty is something about something or someone that provides an experience beyond what we might comprehend. I was watched the secret life of babies last week which talked about how we are naturally wired to look into a babies face and be attracted to who they are and want to care for them – want them to be part of our lives. The experience of beauty talks about balance and harmony – leading to feelings of attractiveness and well-being.

One of the words in NT Greek translated beauty is ὡραῖος which talks of something that is seen just at the right moment -  of ripeness - a fruit being there at the right time and being just the right sweetness.

What makes humans beautiful as individuals and as community is that we are made in the image of God – who we are – not in looks but in existence should reflect the loving, mighty and awesome God who we worship. As we are made in the image of God our values and the way we behave as a community become more important. To be truly beautiful we need to follow Christ’s example – who is the true and complete image of God.

A community that is made in the image of God should be a community that brings the hope of Jesus. If a community speaks of living as beauty it speaks of being incarnational – of bringing the light of Jesus wherever it is. A community that continually seeks to do this becomes attractive because it speaks more and more of Jesus. Jesus attracted people because he was a walking, talking embodiment of God’s love.

In the words of some band called One Direction (no I am not a fan) what makes you beautiful is that you light up my life like nobody else. 

Or, even better, in 2 Corinthians 5:17

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!" 

What makes us beautiful is Christ - who is the light of the world.