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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with The Rt Rev Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, Bishop of Newcastle.

Good morning.

A friend remarked to me recently that he had been required to sign a cheque for a particular transaction and it had taken him the better part of a day to find his chequebook which turned out to be buried in a bottom drawer in a highly inaccessible part of his house. It was on this day in 1659 that the first British cheque that we know of was made payable to a Mr Delboe for £400 which is the equivalent of at least £76,000 in today’s money. These days, financial matters are often conducted online, or virtually. We live in a ‘cashless society’ it has even been said. Yet coins and notes, and indeed cheques remain in use albeit in a declining way. Some things of course are hard to put a value on, and there is a phrase that talks about knowing the cost of everything but the value of nothing.

When we prepared to move house, we had a good look at our possessions and decided to move quite a lot of items on to a local charity shop. As we placed them next to the counter, a rather forthright lady who happened to be in the shop at the same time remarked, ‘what a load of junk’. We didn’t think so, but one person’s junk is another person’s treasure, and so on it goes. The next day we happened to walk past the same shop, and saw some of our items in the window, and a week or so later I received a letter from the charity letting me know that with added gift aid, our donated items had made quite a significant amount for a good cause, which made us very glad indeed.

Eternal God, help me to find value in the people and places I encounter today. Where I see a gap, enable me to respond with a generous heart and a spirit of hope.

Amen.