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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the environmentalist and theologian Dr Ruth Valerio

Good Morning.

This weekend fifty years ago, Chicory Tip was number 1 with ‘son of my father’. Watching the video is definitely a ‘blast from the past’ with their seventies hair and clothing, and music that could only have come from that time. This is also when the very first scientific hand-held calculator was introduced, and when the British Parliament voted to join the European Communities, as it was then known. How much change we have gone through in fifty years!

This weekend fifty years ago is also when I was born. Looking back at pictures of when I was a baby, it’s clear that I have changed a lot in fifty years too. I have grown and changed physically of course, but also as a person, learning, making mistakes, forming relationships, growing into a sense of purpose, with all the struggles and challenges those changes bring as well as the joys.

Change happens all the time and can be both thrilling and unsettling, but there is one thing that the Hebrew and Christian scriptures tell us doesn’t change: ‘The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end - they are new every morning’.

This weekend gives me an opportunity to reflect on how God has walked with me through every stage of my life, in all the changes, and to be thankful for his constant love and mercies. As we start this weekend, what are you grateful for when you look back on your life? Are you aware of the divine presence with you?

Loving God, at the start of this morning, I thank you that your mercies are new again to me. May I live today in the knowledge of your steadfast love, and may I too show love and mercy to those I meet.

Amen