Weekly Message Light of God Ministry • Reverend Mary White
Good Day and Blessings,
Spring, my favourite season! We see all around us seeds sprouting through warming earth, life budding out of tree branches, birds creating nests where eggs will hatch, songs of winged ones’ filling the air, sunrays of light lifting the Spirit of all creation, and new life being born throughout the forest. There is hope and reassurance in spring; hope that Mother Earth will continue to replenish the soil with abundant sustenance for all; and reassurance that a greater power than ourselves has the ability to bring healing and renewal to the planet. We just have to get out of the way and let be.
With Love,
Rev. Mary White
This Week’s Family Fun A Message from Brenda Pielle
Dear Parents:
When I was growing up my Dad used to recite a little poem each year at the start of this new season: “Spring has sprung, the grass has “riz” (risen), I wonder where the birdie is? The bird’s upon the wing, but that’s absurd, the wing’s upon the bird!” My brothers and I heard that over and over again, and always with a laugh afterwards because Dad would say, “boidy” instead of “birdie”, and “absoid” instead of absurd. Whether we like poetry, songs, or dancing for joy, the season of spring certainly is a happy time of new beginnings.
This week the parent tot video has names of our children in the first song that is called, “The More We Sing Together, the Happier We’ll Be” followed by “I Love My Mom, I Love My Dad”; “The B-I-B-L-E”; “Look at the Robyn”, and closing with “God Made Me”. The story this week is called, Guess How Much I Love You.
The Family Fun video has the following songs: “Most of All”; “Love the Lord Your God”; “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow”; “Under the Boardwalk”; and closing with a song called, “Go Make A Difference”. The story this week is called, A Wilderness Passover.
May these songs and stories provide you with some time to spend as a family singing along, listening, and capturing some quality time together. You will find them on our website at the following link: www.powellriverunitedchurch.org/family-fun
Sincerely,
Brenda Pielle
Reaching Out to Families
Powell River United Church
John 9:13-17 (ERV) • Some Pharisees Have Questions
Then the people brought the man to the Pharisees. The day Jesus had made mud and healed the man’s eyes was a Sabbath day. So the Pharisees asked the man, “How did you get your sight?”
He answered, “He put mud on my eyes. I washed, and now I can see.”
Some of the Pharisees said, “That man does not obey the law about the Sabbath day. So he is not from God.”
Others said, “But someone who is a sinner cannot do these miraculous signs.” So they could not agree with each other.
They asked the man again, “Since it was your eyes he healed, what do you say about him?”
He answered, “He is a prophet.”
In Loving Memory
It is with great sadness that we announce that Lillian Bruce passed away March 24th.
APPLES • Joy Mead from “Where Are The Alters”
I have a sort of dream of a hidden orchard and the soft air of a late summer evening.
Butterflies feast on fallen fruit.
In the fading light, I reach up and hold an apple in my hand.
It rests there against the stars just visible through the branches.
I smell its sharp-sweet flesh, sense its mystery.
I’m holding life and legends in one hand.
Apples were there at the beginning before words, before they took their place in story.
Inside this red-gold globe are tiny storehouses for the heady scent of orchards in full bloom and the flowering of human dreams.
Once monks were buried in orchards.
Imagine a graveyard in blossom time.
How could you not believe in resurrection?
Happiest of Birthdays This Week to:
Marion Russell, Barbara Armour, and Trish Norris.
PRUC Online Worship Service
Please join us this Sunday, March 28th
The Rainbow Man Excerpt from: Neil Paynter “Down to Earth.”
I met the rainbow man in a night shelter for homeless men. The rainbow man dressed in bright colours – tie-dyed T-shirts, purple hair, pink nail polish. Spoke in colours. It was a depressing, colourless place – dingy, dirty yellow walls; clouds of grey smoke hanging. He was labelled mentally ill, schizophrenic. At one time he had studied fine arts at college, somebody said, had worked masterfully in oils and acrylics. Now, he worked in Crayola crayon. Drew like a child: dogs and cats and upside-down pink-orange flowers planted in clouds. He got beat up by the men a lot.
One day he brought a leaf in from a walk he took (he was always taking long walks) and held it up to me and said to look, see the light in the leaf pulsing, dancing still.
I was busy and tired and had forgotten how to see, and said: ‘Yeah, it’s a maple leaf, so what’ – there was someone buzzing at the door again, paperwork, so many important things to do. ‘The light in the leaf,’ he said again and danced away in a whirl of wind.
And when I sat down and stopped, I realised that what he meant was: to look and see that energy, that essence, alive in the leaf. He could see it. He was supposed to be disabled but he was able to see the light of God in a leaf and to wonder at it. After weeks of running blind through my life, the rainbow man taught me to open my eyes and heart again.
Prayer • Giving One
You do great things for us and we appreciate the abundance we have been gifted. Through eyes that focus on the smallest details, may we see all things from a new perspective. God of the past may we forgive ourselves for transgressions upon creation that we cannot take back. God of the present guide us to remove our blindfolds that keep us from watching the earth awaken from winter’s rest. God of the future let us be open to new beginnings that enable us to blossom into your will for us. Be present as we grow into life anew, we pray.
Amen