A ‘Thought for the Day’ for Black Cat Radio on 13th March 2021

Hello

 

This has been a week of turmoil about the Royal Family and concern about women’s safety, among all the other things we might have on our minds. In the middle of it all, though, I saw something that reminded me of hope. I saw on Facebook a photograph someone had taken of a tree in the Cambridge Botanic Gardens. This tree was damaged in a storm in the 1960s and had been filled with bricks and tar to protect it from rotting away. This isn’t recommended now as it’s not that good for the tree, but the image caught my eye.

 

Although bricks are obviously not natural for a tree the bark was growing round them in a kind of heart shape, as if trying to turn something alien and harmful into something beautiful and good. This kind of reminded me of the ways in which we might have bad things happen to us, and we can’t deny or hide this, at least not without harming ourselves, but it’s possible for new life to grow round it and transform it. We don’t get rid of our past experiences but with the right help we can make something good come out of them. This, I think, is what the Bible is getting at when it talks about how in God all things work together for good. It’s not that bad things happen to teach us something or because we’ve done something wrong. It’s more that, when bad things happen, he wants to help us repair the damage and even make things better than they were before.

 

For me, that’s a hopeful thing and I’m really glad I saw that picture, so I just wanted to offer you that image, or maybe you’d like to find one for yourself that will remind you of the possibility of change and beauty in the most unlikely of circumstances.