On Ash Wednesday the symbolism as you walked into the church was a purple cloth draped on the floor below the sanctuary. Two large branches forming the shape of a cross, burnt to their core by the recent bush fires in our area, lay on the cloth. It was powerful. I always marvel at the country side after a bush fire, devastated, destruction, black, yet within weeks, even days if there has been a drop of rain, new shoots will begin to grow from what seems to have been something very dead - bush fires turn trees into ashes but rain on them brings new growth. (This so reminds me of Christ the living water.) Is 61:3 talks of beauty from ashes.....'To give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning' I looked at those burnt tree branches and something deep within my being, something deep within my soul said something about God, something about us being in the power of God, something about our own new growth, something about a God who holds us close and has the power to restore.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord
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