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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Anne Easter

Good morning – and May the Fourth be with you!

Yes, you’re right, that dreadful old joke tells us it’s Star Wars day, the day when fans everywhere celebrate their great love of what’s officially called an American epic space opera, created by George Lucas which began with the eponymous film in 1977.

Now, my husband and sons enjoyed these fantasies very much and other television programmes like them. They found them exciting and imaginative and the boys would make themselves light sabres and other pieces of equipment so that they could invent their own stories and play all the parts. I noticed that some women did feature actively in the adventures and seemed to be equal to the men in their abilities. There were some quite cute little beings too that brought humour to the stories.

I definitely didn’t fancy the outfits but I did find certain aspects of the Star Wars concept interesting. Everything was bound together by something called The Force for whom nothing was impossible, and those who were tuned into The Force had special powers that they gained through training and meditation. And, no matter how near our heroes came to disaster, always, in the end, Good triumphed over Evil and they lived to fight on another day.

For me, Star Wars has echoes of a theology which, like our faith, points us to a God in whose creative and loving hands, everything rests and in whom, all things will be well.

Creator God, help us to be transformed by your love and to trust in your grace.

Amen.