Signs from nature

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Spiritual reflection to start the day in Holy Week with Rev Richard Frazer of the Church of Scotland. Good morning. I often lead groups on pilgrim journeys. There is so much nourishment to be gained from absorbing the cultural and spiritual narrative of places of resonance, and allowing the natural world to speak to us. Not long ago I had two pilgrimages to undertake that would mean being away from home for several weeks. Just before I set off, I walked with my wife on the beach where we live in the north of Scotland, and lamented the prospect of being apart for so long. She reminded me of a poet who’d said that we should make spaces in our togetherness. The cedar and the oak beautify a landscape as they grow side by side, but neither will flourish if they overshadow one another. Just as she said this as we sat on the shore, two dolphins appeared only metres away. They swam by us side by side in perfect harmony, separate in their togetherness. At this time, as we mark the week leading up to Jesus’s arrest in the Holy Week story, an awareness grows of an impending and painful separation. And then a mysterious voice is heard by his followers who have gathered to eat together. It is a kind of reassurance. It seems to me that nature speaks to the disciples, offering some kind of consolation. Grace in the face of a tragic parting. Living Christ, your friends found reassurance when they heard the wind of the Spirit. And the natural world nods and beckons to us and her voice can calm our fears. May the voice of nature offer not so much escape from what’s ahead but a voice and presence that can steel us and enable us to believe that we might just be able to cope. Amen.