A Present from the North

Having had another bad night, up in the early hours of Thursday morning, I needed the help of another Sleep teabag - Twinings Spiced Apple and Vanilla with Camomile and Passionflower - (and, no, they are not paying me to endorse it - if only!) - and here is the verse that the kind friend who gave me the teabags had written on this one:

Jeremiah 31:3:  "From far away Jehovah appeared to me and said: “I have loved you with an everlasting love. That is why I have drawn you to me with loyal love."

Once again all I can say is perfect.  Perfect words for the small hours when things can seem a bit bleak.  

And I had a lovely surprise yesterday when a present from the North arrived.  Pen sent me "The Great Train Robbery" by Michael Crichton.  I am really looking forward to it - and already one of the little quotes at the beginning has stopped me in my tracks. 

It is from a Victorian Child's poem - please note that, a poem for a child - from 1856.  And it says:

"Satan is glad - when I am bad,

And hopes that I - with him shall lie

In fire and chains - and dreadful pains."

And up until the 1950s at least, children were being taught this.  I was taught it at my Convent school.  Satan was pictured as presiding over a hell of fiery torment where any of us tiny schoolchildren might end up - forever!

Yet, as the Bible famously says: "The wages sin pays is death" - death, not a life somewhere else in torment.  We, the children of Adam, are all born damaged and dying - "in sin" - through to fault of our own. So we die and return to the dust from which we were made.  And if you look at the whole of that famous verse it says:  "For the wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord."  Romans 6:23

Everlasting life is a gift, not a punishment.  And we, the damaged, dying children of Adam, can hope to live forever in the restored earthly paradise.  

We are now approaching the Memorial of Jesus' sacrificial death, the death that paid back to God the perfect human life that Adam so tragically lost in Eden, and opened up the way back to life and perfection for us, his children.

I hope to make my next blog an invitation to that Memorial which will be held on Saturday, March 27th, at 6.30 in the evening.   And there will be a special talk the preceding Sunday, which will help to explain why this is such an important event.