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A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Rev Lynne Gibson.

PRAYER FOR THE DAY 7TH OCTOBER 2021

Good morning.
Like many girls of my generation, I grew up reading ‘Anne of Green Gables’ and all of the subsequent books, so it is a great joy to me that my brother and his family now live on Prince Edward Island, where the books are set, and the author lived. The climate is temperate, similar to our own, so it’s easy to understand Anne’s excited exclamation, ‘I’m so glad that I live in a world where there Octobers.’
I have to confess that autumn is my favourite season- its colours, the sounds of crisp leaves underfoot, the smells of harvest thanksgiving.
And yet I don’t know that I feel the excitement of Anne of Green Gables this year- and I don’t believe I’m alone in that. As we alternate between stepping out in hope, and scurrying back in anxiety, we’re living in a kind of survival mode. We’re getting by – but where is our joy?
We seem to be exhausted with that combination of worry and yearning for better days. We are weighed down with our endless thoughts and fears. And so maybe Autumn is our teacher. Maybe, as the leaves fall from the trees around us, stripping themselves of all that is dead and weighing them down, it is our annual reminder to let go.
We may not be able to divest ourselves of everything that would hold us back – we’re not in control of all that is weighing us down. But we can let go of the need to have answers to everything. We can shed those attitudes that hold us back, the burden of unfulfilled promises and unexpected disappointments and start to grow towards the light.
As we crunch through the dead leaves of October under our feet, we will find joy in the small things.
Lord of our transformation, help us to cast all of our cares upon you, and to find new joy in your world, Amen