Good afternoon. The first item of business, as always, is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader today is Mrs Barbara Urquhart DCS, who is president of the diaconate council of the Church of Scotland and chair of the Scottish Churches Disability Agenda Group.
I will begin with some words of Jesus. He said:
“Let me tell you why you are here. You are here to be light, bringing out the God-colours in the world. So let your light shine.”
I was nine when the accident happened, and everything that took place that day seemed to do so at an alarming rate. I was taken to the doctor’s, from there to the accident and emergency department at the hospital and from there to the hospital theatre. Doctors and nurses moved swiftly around me and no one had time to speak to me other than to ask my name. My eye was sore, but what was bothering me more than that was, “Where’s my mum? Who are these people? What are they going to do to me?”
I woke up in my hospital bed with both eyes bandaged. Physically and, with hindsight, mentally I was in deep darkness. Jesus said, “Let your light shine.” How much I needed to be aware of Jesus’s light shining in my darkness at that time, and shine it certainly did in the love, cheerfulness, support, encouragement and kindness of other patients, nurses, family and friends. Jesus’s light shone brightly and continued to do so. It will continue to do so if you let your light shine.
I suggest to you that you, too, have experienced darkness in your life, perhaps following the death of someone close to you. Perhaps your darkness is loneliness, ill health or a broken relationship. We do not always know when someone is going through a period of darkness in their lives—it is not always obvious—so it is important for us to let our light shine at all times. Allow the experiences that you have had to make you better people, not bitter people; use them to support and encourage others through their darkness and to assure them that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Let your light shine.
“Not merely in the words you say, not only in your deeds confessed;
But in the most unconscious way is Christ expressed.
Is it a calm and peaceful smile, a holy light upon your brow?
Oh no, I felt His presence while you laughed just now.
For me twas not the truth you taught, to you so clear to me so dim.
But when you came to me you brought a sense of Him.
And from your eyes He beckons me, and from your heart His love is shed;
Till I lose sight of you and see the Christ instead.”
Amen.
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