Poem for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity

The Bright Field

I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the
pearl of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realise now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

RS Thomas (1913-2000)

Then Moses said, ‘I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.’ When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’   Exodus 3:3-4

August is a good month for those who can to turn aside, to have a break from routine and be refreshed. Even if we have to spend the whole month at home God will still be trying to catch our attention. Perhaps there’s not a burning bush or a bright field but there will be something that God wants us to notice.  Ask God to look back with you at some point each day and see where there was delight, what was life giving and creative.  Stay with that, relish it, give thanks.  What was destructive and negative. Don’t hang on to it. Hand it over to God. Offer yourself again to him. Here I am. 

-Tina Lamb