June: Thoughts from Huw

Dear Friends,

                       John 20 v19-23

I am writing to you in the days leading up to Pentecost. The sun is shining through the study window. A beautiful day to thank God for His creation.

Before the coming of the Holy Spirit, the apostles were virtually living in hiding in the upper room. A great task had been entrusted to them, yet they neither had the strength or the will to begin it. But after Pentecost they were changed people.

People change when they are given hope; when someone believes in them, and gives them a task to do. Above all, they change when they are loved. They come out of their shells, they achieve a new lease of life as hidden energies are released in them. The miracle of human change is the only real miracle.

All of us are a real mixture of good and bad, of weakness and strength. But overall we have a capacity for goodness. For many of us we have hands that can care, eyes that can see, ears that can hear, tongues that can speak, feet that can walk and for all of us we have hearts that can love. But each of us has some faults and failings which keep us from realising our true selves. We need someone to awaken us to what is inside us. Someone who will help us live our life to the full and help us to grow.

For us followers of Jesus, that someone is the Holy Spirit. The power that changed the apostles is available to us too, the gentle power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit awakens us to the mysterious power within us, helps us to truly live and helps us to grow.

The poet Pablo Neruda said ‘I want to do with you what spring does with cherry trees.’ That’s what the Spirit does. 

We sing some wonderful hymns at Pentecost and one of my favourites is ;

Hymns and Psalms 327 …

Spirit divine, attend our prayers
And make this house your home;
Descend with all your gracious powers:
O come, great Spirit come
Andrew Reed (1787-1862) 

With good wishes and prayers
Huw