The future’s Orange, or so a mobile phone company once told us.  It was a short-lived future; Orange has gone.  Today, looking out from my study, the future looks distinctly and vibrantly yellow.  Each year, as spring unfolds, my view is dominated for a season by yellow forsythia.  This year, beyond the forsythia, lies a rapidly expanding mat of similarly shaded celandines.  Cowslips will shortly follow, I’m sure.

As each day goes by, the Rectory garden looks increasingly spring-like.  The front is definitely yellow, whilst elsewhere other shades are joining in.  Snowdrops are largely over but hellebores contribute pinks and white, while daffodils add yet more yellow.  Trees too are budding and, judging by the amount of nesting material being beak-lifted into the shrubberies, just out of sight, major building works are underway.  After the gloom of winter, at every turn there are signs of new life.  Soon there will be more hungry little mouths to feed.  It is spring, and once more the earth awakes from slumber; new life springs forth, it is the time of resurrection.

This is a cycle which stems back into the mists of time, and will reach forward beyond us all.  With all we have experienced in recent months; this year’s annual awakening takes on a fresh impetus.  Over the next week we are invited once again to celebrate the cycle of life, death and resurrection as we walk with Jesus from the triumph and elation of Palm Sunday, through his darkest hour, on the cross at Calvary, to the day of resurrection; the promise of new life realised.

God has promised that ‘as long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease’ [Gen 8:22].  Spring has sprung.  For the moment the future is a vibrant yellow.  Let this annual miracle of spring remind us of God’s eternal, loving presence – and give us hope.

Rev Philip Payne

28 March 2021

The Pew Sheet for 28th March can be found here

Thanks to Colin Hardy for his picture of Primroses in the churchyard.