Take time out to reconnect
LIKE many people at the start of lockdown, we decided to take the money we were saving on things like going out and travel and invest in a hot tub.
Nearly two years in and it’s an investment that we think has already brought a great return.
Personally, I like to sit and soak in the dark of night and last night was no exception.
It was a clear still night in West Bridgford which meant that you can hear the chiming of ‘Little John’ - the bell ringing from the Council house in Old Market Square (which incidentally has the deepest sounding ring in the country and can be heard up to seven miles away).
I know that bell so well. My first ever job back in 1987 was in a top floor office at the very bottom of King Street - overlooking the square. Every 15 minutes the chimes got longer, accumulating in the full sequence of eclectic bell rings on the hour.
With no frequent need to go into town over the last few decades, it’s been so lovely to hear the bells ringing again. Yet when I was working right next to them, even though they were so much louder, I became oblivious to them. Familiarity bred contempt.
I think that’s very much like how we can end up relating with God. He has made himself clearly known to all creation. In Romans 1:20 the Apostle Paul declares “For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.”. For me, just watching a wildlife documentary is proof enough that the mind-blowing brilliance of creation surely has to point to a creator rather than a cataclysmic coincidence of cosmic events.
Yet it’s so easy to miss the wonders around you when they’re right in front of you all of the time. Like the bells becoming oblivious to me in the late 80s, I need those hot tub moments of stillness where I can stop, listen, reflect and take in the brilliance of creation.
God is eternal. God is love. God is unchanging. The Bible says that His mercies are new every morning. Just as the clock chimes start again every morning so does God’s longing for him to reconnect with his fallen creation.
Why not take some time today - even just two minutes if it’s not your usual practice - to stop, look around you at creation, and connect with your creator. His bells are always chiming, but are you listening?
■■Alistair Kent is pastor at the The Rock Church, West Bridgford