Since 10pm last Thursday, when the exit poll predicting a hung parliament was announced, this country has existed in a state of uncertainty. The only thing we can be sure about is that our new, weak minority government will be lucky to limp along for five months, let alone a full five years - so while there is no certainty there is at least hope of change and possibility.
And then yesterday I attended a wedding. I had first met the bride while she was a student at Oxford, and I remember the great certainty with which she told me, soon after meeting, exactly what she was planning to do with her degree after graduation. But she must have known the certainty wasn't very deep, because not long after she joined the Samuel Group I was co-convening, and - with deep prayer and commitment - began to discern what God might want her to do after graduation, peacefully spending time in a place of not really knowing. What she went on to do after her degree was meant to be another step on the journey - but it became much more than that, especially at this was where she met her future husband.
Yesterday, in Esther's radiance, I saw deep certainty. This was not the certainty of having all her plans and career mapped out - in fact, as they will soon be moving to a new city, there's plenty of uncertainty about her future home and job. Instead, I saw the certainty of a young woman who has found the one to whom she wishes to pledge her life and give her love, and for whom this feels so very, very right. And this - far more than careers or courses - is a sure foundation on which to build a future.
The love and joy abounding at the wedding was an excellent prelude to today's Feast of the Holy Trinity, in which we celebrate the unbounded love and the joy which are the Trinity's essence. This morning I saw a sonnet for Trinity Sunday by Malcolm Guite. In his preamble he wrote: If, as I believe, we are made in the image of God, as beings in communion with one another in the name of that Holy and Undivided Trinity whose being is communion, then we will find reflections and traces of the Trinitarian mystery in all our loving and making... and this was developed in the sonnet:
In Life, in Love, in co-inherent Grace...
In His own image, His imagination,
The Triune Poet makes us for His glory,
And makes us each the other’s inspiration.
Yesterday I witnessed two young people, made for God's glory and each other's inspiration, vowing to live in a loving communion in which they can increasingly become this inspiration of God for each other, and for all those around them. May they, and all of us, find reflections and traces of the Trinitarian mystery of love in all of life, especially in times and situations of uncertainty.
And then yesterday I attended a wedding. I had first met the bride while she was a student at Oxford, and I remember the great certainty with which she told me, soon after meeting, exactly what she was planning to do with her degree after graduation. But she must have known the certainty wasn't very deep, because not long after she joined the Samuel Group I was co-convening, and - with deep prayer and commitment - began to discern what God might want her to do after graduation, peacefully spending time in a place of not really knowing. What she went on to do after her degree was meant to be another step on the journey - but it became much more than that, especially at this was where she met her future husband.
Yesterday, in Esther's radiance, I saw deep certainty. This was not the certainty of having all her plans and career mapped out - in fact, as they will soon be moving to a new city, there's plenty of uncertainty about her future home and job. Instead, I saw the certainty of a young woman who has found the one to whom she wishes to pledge her life and give her love, and for whom this feels so very, very right. And this - far more than careers or courses - is a sure foundation on which to build a future.
The love and joy abounding at the wedding was an excellent prelude to today's Feast of the Holy Trinity, in which we celebrate the unbounded love and the joy which are the Trinity's essence. This morning I saw a sonnet for Trinity Sunday by Malcolm Guite. In his preamble he wrote: If, as I believe, we are made in the image of God, as beings in communion with one another in the name of that Holy and Undivided Trinity whose being is communion, then we will find reflections and traces of the Trinitarian mystery in all our loving and making... and this was developed in the sonnet:In Life, in Love, in co-inherent Grace...
In His own image, His imagination,
The Triune Poet makes us for His glory,
And makes us each the other’s inspiration.
Yesterday I witnessed two young people, made for God's glory and each other's inspiration, vowing to live in a loving communion in which they can increasingly become this inspiration of God for each other, and for all those around them. May they, and all of us, find reflections and traces of the Trinitarian mystery of love in all of life, especially in times and situations of uncertainty.
Comments
Post a Comment