Messenger May 2018 - A Summer Day
Jim East
Friday 20th April was a wonderful sunny day. The papers declared it the start of a ‘mini heatwave’. As it was my day off, I wasted no time in jumping on my bike and pedalling over to Anglesey Abbey to enjoy the extensive grounds. While walking among the trees I noticed how many had not yet begun to bud and sprout leaves. The sunlight illuminated them in a way that was most unusual.
For some reason or other, I thought of Luke 21 and Christ’s words about observing trees:
29 He told them this parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. 30 When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. 31 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.
I decided to sit and write my thoughts down in the form of a little poem.
A summer day caught sweet spring by surprise
And barely budding trees with branches clean,
Stand brightly lit in ancient grey and green.
Once dappled by the sun in leafy days,
Now spare and deathly in the warming haze,
Amid a din of birds and little flies.
The trees will not be woken or be pressed
To shift a season, hurry their slow change.
For them it would be foolish to arrange
A beauteous canopy of leaf and fruit
And hope that fickle seasons follow suit.
Only passing time will lift them from their rest.
Just as every passing hour brings summer closer, so every passing hour brings the moment of Christ’s return closer.