Plenary, 14 Jan 2004
Meeting date: Wednesday, January 14, 2004
Official Report
359KB pdf
Time for Reflection
Good afternoon. Our first item of business is time for reflection. We welcome Marilyn Douglas, a parish assistant from Cumbernauld.
Marilyn Douglas (Parish Assistant, Church of Scotland, Cumbernauld):
January is often seen as a quiet month with long, dark nights and grey days in contrast to all the hype that has become part and parcel of preparing for Christmas—buying presents, sending cards, decorating homes and trees, having parties and outings—followed in quick succession by the boxing day sales and new year celebrations.
I love Christmas and I love all the business and activities that are part of it, but I also enjoy this time when I can change down a gear; it provides an opportunity to recharge the batteries and focus on the year ahead. For as much as I enjoy the business of Christmas celebrations, I am also aware that it would be unwise to go through life running in fifth gear all the time.
A couple of years ago, the leaders of one of the children's groups that I am involved with decided that it would be good to take the children on a walk down the glen near where we live. On the return journey to the church, one of the children stopped and said that he could not go any further because he was running on empty. Fortunately, we were only about 50yd from the church, where he would be able to have his lunch.
We all know the importance of regularly having something to eat to sustain us physically. It is equally important that we take time to be renewed on a mental and—from a Christian perspective—spiritual level and that we take time apart, even if it is only for a few minutes each day, to be still and quiet. In the New Testament, in Luke's gospel, we read that, after the shepherds had visited Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus and had related to them all that they had seen and heard, Mary pondered deeply about all that they had shared.
The lights and decorations of Christmas may all have disappeared, to be stored away for another year, but the message at the heart of Christmas lives on: Emmanuel, God is with us. I hope, during the parliamentary business of the year ahead, that you will value the important times of stillness and quiet, and that you may know God's guidance and blessing in all that you are involved in as you seek to serve others.