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Birdsong

11 April, 2011 / admin / News and Views
2

“God is everything that is good, as I see,
and the goodness which everything has, is God.”
– Julian of Norwich

Spring was slow to arrive this year, but when it finally came I’m convinced I heard it.  You see, there were no green shoots: it had been so cold.  The woods had no carpet of wild flowers, as the ground was still frozen.

But God was there in those silent woods.

Then, one day, as if by magic, the air was filled with birdsong.  At last that long-awaited miracle had dawned upon the world.

Song thrush And God was there in that miracle of birdsong.

Mind you, the wind still had a cutting edge, but that didn’t seem to worry the Robins, the Blackbirds, or the Song-thrushes; nor for that matter the Wrens or the Blue-tits, but then they all knew something which was hidden from mortal eyes.  The time had come to find a mate.

“There was a Door to which I found no key,
There was a Veil past which I could not see.”

But God was there in the wind and in the trees.

Brimstone butterflyLater, we saw a Brimstone butterfly, usually the first to appear in Spring.  Its name captures its colour, Brimstone being the old name for sulphur.

And God soared upwards on that butterfly’s wings.

“Alas, that Spring should vanish with the Rose,
That Youth’s sweet-scented Manuscript should close!
The Nightingale that in the Branches sang,
Ah, whence, and whither flown again, who knows!”

“God is everything that is good, as I see,
and the goodness which everything has, is God.”

Eric Perry

(With acknowledgements to Edward Fitzgerald’s translation of  The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam )

Birdsong, Brimstone butterfly, Edward Fitzgerald, Eric Perry, Fleet, Fleet United Reformed Church, fleet urc, God, Julian of Norwich, nature, spring, Stephen M Thornton, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, United Reformed Church, URC

2 comments on “Birdsong”

  1. Pat Franklin says:
    13 April, 2011 at 5:18 pm

    With all of scripture to quote from, why do you choose ‘The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam’ of all things. And why does the Birdsong item on your website sound like you are pantheists? No wonder we can’t join your church. No discernment. Shame on you, URC.
    Mrs Pat Franklin, Church Crookham

  2. admin, in response to Pat Franklin, says:
    14 April, 2011 at 11:28 am

    Thank you for your interest in our website, and I am sorry that you feel that this post is un-Christian in its approach. Here at Fleet URC we believe that God is in everything and speaks through all that God has made. We also believe that God speaks through people in all cultures and faiths, and that we should always be open to listen and learn. We understand that many people hold a different view of God from this, and of what it means to be a Christian, and we seek to be tolerant of these differences.
    We hope that you will find a church where you feel able to worship and learn.

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