Regular blog readers will also know about the church mascot, Igor the Iguana. Igor has featured in a good many posts over the past three years, even having a family service dedicated to him! (see September 2012 for more details) Much enamoured of the warm spring sunshine, he ventured forth to Aysgarth Falls on Easter Monday:

The scenery was truly beautiful in the glistening sun:

Igor wasn’t the only one enjoying himself, as these stone-skimmers demonstrate:

Almost a year ago, my son phoned me to inform me in very solemn tones that ‘Runty is dead.’ Runty, familiar blog readers will be aware, is the smallest of the three chilli plants my son has been growing for quite some time now. The tallest was affectionately known as ‘Daddy Plant’ and the middle plant ‘Mummy Plant’ (although now, confusingly, Mummy is the tallest of the three and has produced a huge number of chillies!), with Runty always struggling to bring up the rear. On that May morning, Runty appeared to have given up the ghost, small stem sagging…

This being his first foray into chilli growing, my son had no clue what to do with collapsed plants and so he did nothing. Which, as it turned out, was just the right thing to do, because about a month later, Runty stood to attention again and began to grow. He is still much,  much smaller than the other two plants, who are now pruned and producing their second batch of chillies, but this week we noticed…

… buds!

Runty is showing signs of life! The bud comes first, then the flowers, then the chilli. Our first chilli from Runty will be very special indeed. To all intents and purposes, we were sure he had died, but there are now unmistakeable signs of life. Jesus said, ‘Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.‘ (John 12:24) It is a sobering fact that resurrection only comes after death… but we rejoice in the fact that death is not the end of the story!

This month’s prayer topic focuses on the need for us to live holy lives. Peter tells us ‘But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” ‘ (1 Pet 1: 15-16)

We are called to be set apart for God, our lives wholly given over to Him. Paul reminds Timothy that God ‘has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace.’ (2 Tim 1:9) Holiness is not simply about our effort and virtue; it is God’s will for our lives and He gives us the strength and power to live for Him in ways that are worthy of our calling.

Often, we associate holiness with perfection or with being sinless, and therefore allow condemnation to rule our lives when we realise we are neither perfect nor sinless. Holiness involves our active participation with God, but we are dependent on His sacrifice to make us holy: ‘For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.’ (Heb 10:14) We understand that there is a sense in which holiness is imparted to us at salvation but also that the process of ‘being made holy’ (also known as ‘sanctification’) is ongoing throughout our lives. As the Message version translates the above verse, ‘By that single offering, he did everything that needed to be done for everyone who takes part in the purifying process.‘

Our prayer this month is for the saving grace of Christ to be known in our lives in increasing measure and for us all to understand God’s purposes for our lives and to live according to those purposes. As the Holy Spirit highlights areas in our lives that need to change, we pray for the courage and grace to change and for the determination and will to dedicate our whole lives to God, so that purity, integrity and wholeness can be the spiritual fruit grown through our walk with God.

‘Back to our first love, nothing between us
Back to Your heart, to the start of it all, where we found You.
Out of the ashes, into the fire
You are refining our hearts in the flames of Your presence.

Set apart for our God above, set apart for the One we love.
Set apart for Your glory, we are Yours, Yours.

Sacred and holy, Your name is worthy
Jesus, awaken our hearts now to be Your revival.’ (‘Set Apart’, Worship Central)

We also had two birthdays to celebrate, the first on Easter Sunday:

The second is an even-more-special-than-usual birthday, and was celebrated with a very special cake!

The question is often asked ‘Which came first? – the chicken or the egg?’ Garry spoke on this topic tonight, reading Heb 1:1-4 initially and then going on to talk about how our answer to this question will largely depend on our worldview. If we believe the Biblical account of creation, we will believe that the chicken came first, created by God. If we believe in evolution, we will believe that the egg came first.

Evolution and the Big Bang Theory are taught as fact in schools in the UK, with scientific advances backing these theories trumpeted in the news. Last March, newspapers reported that physicists had found a long-predicted twist in light from the big bang that represents the first image of ripples in the universe called gravitational waves, cited as direct proof of the theory of inflation. A new study demonstrated that this BICEP claim was wrong (see here for further details), but this was not widely reported at all. Despite many theories posited by theoretical physicists (including dark matter, wormholes, multi-verses and strings), these are not yet proven and scientists’ claims to ‘create life from scratch’ (see here) do not actually involve creating something from nothing. Ultimately, evolution is not scientifically proven. Experiments involving mutations to explain how evolution works fail to explain away the loss of information involved in genetic mutation and both experiments using flies and fish ended up with flies and fish, not a new species…

If we accept that belief is involved in either the view that God created the universe or in evolution, we are still left at Easter to ponder the significance of the egg! Why is the egg a symbol of Easter?

1. The egg shape looks like a stone, reminding us of the tomb in which Jesus’s body was placed. His death was unlike any other death, for He sacrificed Himself, the one who had done no wrong dying for those who had.

2. The egg when broken reminds us of the empty tomb, for although Jesus died for our sins, His body is no longer in the tomb! Jesus is not like Buddha, Krishna or Mohammed; He is risen, just as He said.

3. An egg represents new life, and Jesus arose with a new body, with the ability to give new life to people. He will never die again and all who accept Him as Saviour have new life.

So… we may believe the chicken came first, but at Easter, the egg definitely has priority… especially if it’s chocolate!

A variety of Easter bonnets and head bands was on view tonight: