大象传媒

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Rev Carolyn Skinner

Good morning.

Back in 2012, I served as a chaplain at the London Olympic Games. What an incredible summer that was!

Myself and six other chaplains were working the evening of the closing ceremony. Our role was simply to hand out snacks to the teams as they walked through the athlete鈥檚 village towards the stadium for the celebration. We could hear the noise inside the stadium increase as the ceremony was about to get underway.

When team Australia walked past us, one of their team stopped for a chat. He asked when we were coming into the ceremony, assuming that we were. We laughed and said there was no way that we had an invitation to that occasion. At which point he pulled out not one but seven golden tickets and said they were spare and we could have them. Oh my goodness, how we squealed with delight!

We quickly packed up our table and ran as fast as we could to the stadium. When we found out where our seats were we couldn鈥檛 believe it, they were in the best location. It was a pinch yourself moment. We hadn鈥檛 bought a ticket but we were invited, for free, to accept a seat that someone else had given to us.

I was struck that night by the generosity and kindness of God. It was a tiny glimpse, in a human way, of the lavish nature of God鈥檚 love towards us. Even when we don鈥檛 deserve it or haven鈥檛 earned it, God extends to us his extravagant goodness.

Loving God, I thank you that you are extravagant in your love towards me. May I have eyes to see your goodness and generosity in the world around me today.

Amen

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