A Time for Everything
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
Thought
As someone who likes to plan ahead, I regularly listen to or watch the weather forecast on the radio or the television. I use it to help me decide what clothes to wear the following day or what to pack when I go up to see my mum, which days I might be able to work in the garden and which days are best used for catching up with jobs in the house. The meteorologists do not always get their forecasts exactly accurate but generally they are able to give you a good indication of what to expect over the next couple of days at least.
Over the past year it has been noticeable just how often the forecasters have used the phrase ‘unseasonal weather’ when they have been presenting their forecasts. Back in March it was unseasonably dry and sunny, then in June we had unseasonal flooding, in July it was unseasonably cold and windy, followed by an unseasonably wet August and we have just experienced unseasonably warm weather in October.
All these periods of unseasonal weather ought to remind us that we are not looking after our planet as we should. It is not God who is causing our weather to be unseasonal but us. We are the ones who are causing climate change and we are the ones that need to do something about it. The reason it feels wrong for it to be so warm in October is that it is wrong. God gave us all this wonderful planet to live on, to tend and care for it. All of us need to consider what we are doing. I know that I could do better and I am challenged every time I hear the words ‘unseasonal weather’ to consider my own actions.
The writer in Ecclesiastes tells us that “for everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven”, let us remember that that is how it should be and work together, as much as we can, in order to make it happen.
Prayer
Prayer for Environmental Justice (Compassion UK)
O God, we pray for justice and fairness for those worst hit by our changing climate. We know people living in extreme poverty around the world are worst hit by the climate crisis but have done the least to contribute to it. They also have the fewest resources to implement change. We ask for your mercy O Lord and repent when our blind consumerism has led to the destruction of our common home.
Amen