Slowly we are starting to get back to normal. Though we are still wearing our masks, and there are still things we can’t do, the easing of restrictions is opening things up for us, and I expect that like me you are welcoming the greater freedom.

For one thing, we can plan ahead more. Maybe think about a holiday or how to spend more time with family or friends. We are rediscovering the future and preparing ourselves more for it. Of course, life isn’t all about tomorrow or next year or the far distant future. It’s about living today, living ‘in the moment’, about fully appreciating the here and now.

Jesus was saying this sort of thing when he urged us to live fully in the moment and not to worry excessively about the future. Of course, it is right to take care over doing things properly, and we need to think ahead, but (he says) ‘Don’t fret.’ Don’t be consumed by worry or anxiety. This is the call to trust in God, to have faith in him.

So just as gardeners do what they can, and then leave the growing to the plants, or sailors exercise their skills but can do nothing to make the wind blow, let us do all that we can to be ready, and then let ‘God be God’. The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, which we shall celebrate on Sunday 23 May, enlivens us to step out with confidence. As the psalmist says to God: ‘You will show me the path of life: in your presence is the fullness of joy’. (Psalm 16)

With every blessing
Stephen