Normally, we think of spillage in negative terms. When we spill something, we have to clean up afterwards! Spillage is usually messy. I have young grandchildren who manage to spill something every time they eat or drink, knocking glasses of drink over as they gesture excitedly with their hands, heedless of anything in proximity to them, spilling food on the mysteriously long journey between the plate and their mouths. Each meal time is a time of spillage and I grumble under my breath as I wipe the plastic tablecloth and mats after each meal.

In grander terms, oil spillage from tankers can be another problem that can affect the environment for years; it’s not so easy to deal with that kind of spillage. Contamination can easily come and clear-ups on this scale are major operations.

But the spillage that comes to mind today is a very positive one, more of an overflow than an obstacle. Jesus said, ‘Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured (or spill) into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.’ (Luke 6:38)

God’s blessing is meant to overflow. It’s meant to spill over into other people’s lives. God blesses us to bless others.We’re not meant to hoard blessing; it’s meant to spill over. (Gen 12:3, Psalm 67) Just as I can easily spill a drink into a saucer if I overfill the cup, so God’s blessings are liberal. He is not stingy, but is a generous God. And because of that, we are told to be generous too (see 2 Cor 8-9). God loves a cheerful, generous giver, because then we mirror His heart and reflect His nature.

This kind of spillage may be messy, but it doesn’t need cleaning up afterwards! God’s blessings overflow and needs are met.

A legacy is not only an amount of money or property left to someone in a will. It’s that long-lasting impact of particular events or actions which influence people and places long after these things have happened.

I want to leave a legacy of love and beauty. I want my actions to testify to the goodness of God and His love for the world. It’s this desire to leave ‘beauty for ashes‘ which is at the heart of the community art projects which I lead through Dearne Community Arts’ Festival.

Many will say that art is ephemeral and community art doesn’t last. They cite vandalism and natural decay as reasons not to bother with something so expensive and personal. But the cultural history of England shows us that art and architecture have had, and continue to have, an enormous influence on our country to this very day.

So I press on, making mosaics and quilts and murals – and now selfie boards! – because I want to leave a legacy of beauty for the Dearne Valley. I want colour and vibrancy and positivity and individuality to be beacons of light and hope and faith in a community that’s often seen – by its own residents as well as outsiders – as hopeless, a lost cause, good for nothing.

I refuse to believe the negativity of hopelessness and despair, because I serve a God of all hope, who turned even the disaster of crucifixion into glorious resurrection victory. God had the first word in regeneration, and I believe He is able to regenerate Goldthorpe, Thurnscoe and Bolton-on-Dearne and beyond in every sense of the word. He is a God who makes all things new, and I believe community art is one way that this can be seen, in our generation and in the generations to come.

Come and be a legacy-maker today at our community art workshop between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. at GPCC.

Part of our church’s desire is to see our local community transformed into a place of beauty (since God promised to bestow on His people a crown of beauty instead of ashes, Is 61:3), and as such, we are involved in the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival’s community art project this year, which is to create 16 selfie board celebrating local places and groups which serve our community. On Thursday, Julie was involved with storyteller Rebecca Dye and artist Lydia Caprani in leaidng 4 workshops in Thurnscoe, looking to design the selfie boards for Thurnscoe Flower Park, Thurnscoe Library, Thurnscoe Plaza and Station House.

It was great to work with school children, volunteers, residents and staff on designs for the selfie boards and to hear about the centrality of these locations and the purpose of each group to serve the local community.

At Thurnscoe Flower Park

At Thurnscoe Library & meeting with Big Local Thurnscoe about Thurnscoe Plaza

At Station House

Further consultations and design workshops will be held at GPCC on Tuesday 23 May between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. when we will be looking at the selfie boards for Goldthorpe Town Square, Dearne Churches Together, Dearne Community Arts’ Festival and the Dearne Area Team.

This Thursday (18 May) sees one of the key dates in the Christian calendar: Ascension Day. Partly because of its movable date (coming forty days after Easter, itself a movable festival) and partly because it celebrates absence rather than presence, it does not seem to have the same popularity in our national consciousness as Christmas or Easter.

Ascension Day remembers when Jesus left this earth in bodily form and returned to heaven. It’s a miraculous event witnessed by His disciples which we read about in Luke 24:50-52 and Acts 1:9-11. It marks a definite turning point and whilst it reminds us of the power and majesty of the risen Jesus, it perhaps is a bittersweet reminder that He is no longer present with us in bodily form.

Absence is much harder to celebrate than presence. I recently attended a retirement celebration, and whilst it was wonderful to look back on years of faithful ministry and service, it was also sad to think of this couple no longer serving in their local church. They will be missed.

Jesus knew that His disciples would miss Him. He spoke about going away and leaving them long before this day, and recognised that what He told them brought them grief. (John 16:6) Nonetheless, He affirmed that this departure was actually for their good becaue this would lead to the arrival of ‘the Advocate’, the Holy Spirit. (John 16:7)

Jesus, even when resurrected, could not in bodily form be everywhere at once on earth. His return to heaven would signal the arrival of a global ministry. The arrival of God in the form of the Holy Spirit ten days later on the Day of Pentecost would usher in a new age: the birth and empowerment of the church and a new awareness of God’s presence and power with every believer.

So absence in one form does not necessarily mean abandonment. Change comes inevitably because of the loss we feel, but every celebration in the Christian calendar points to the perfection of God’s plans.

The Ascension also reminds us of a future date, yet to be marked on our calendars, when Jesus comes again in resurrection power. (Acts 1:11) This will be a defining moment in history and something which should mark how we live now and reflect the hope of all mankind. As we prepare to celebrate this Thursday, we understand that the bittersweet is an inevitable part of life and we who believe look ahead with anticipation and hope that Jesus will one day return to our earth in glory to judge the living and the dead.