Serendipity?

‘I’m sorry granny, it’s here with my nines.’ Problem solved, the mystery missing card in the finale of a family game which left granny with three eights – there should have been four.

‘No need to say sorry- easily done!’ Good game, game over, lots of fun.

Just a tiny moment in time, perhaps serendipity, it left me journeying through some reflective moments.

Sorry – a tiny word: admission, regret, contrition, sympathy. Working with students in conflict, a muttered ‘sorry’ deepens resentment, distances reconciliation. Time is needed, to bring feelings under control, allow reflection on ‘sorry because …’ then next steps, to change attitudes and behaviours and find strategies to manage future challenges. A microcosm of our life-time work – it leads to the Eucharist: ‘My Body, broken for you…My Blood, shed for you…for the forgiveness of sins.’ ‘As often as you eat and drink, remember me.’ Jesus knows the need for ‘often’, knows I need time to come again and again – confess, repent, forgive and be forgiven.

Now in a large marquee in a tiny English west coast town, I’m awe-struck listening to Church Mission Society missionaries who were living through the Rwanda revival, begun in the middle of last century. Again and again, we heard stories of how lives had been changed and hearts warmed and how the forgiving love of Christ drew many into the knowledge and love of God. The stories were simple, humble, dynamic.

An elderly man came onto the stage, Dr Kenneth Moynagh. In his mid-fifties, I learned soon after, his ravaged appearance caused by illness from years of service in the unforgiving climate. A highly qualified physician and surgeon, Ken, smiling, described how he had gone into the lab to create a slide for examination. A young technician offered to take over. ‘You don’t do it like that; this is the way we do it.’

Ken, pausing, held the room – we imagined his reaction: ‘How dare you. Do you know who I am? Do you know I spent 10 years of my life gaining qualifications before you were even born?’ Not Ken. Still smiling, his gentle voice powerfully described his response: ‘I’m so sorry. Can you show me how you do it?’

The room was silent. The love of Christ embodied, the risen Christ speaking.

Summed up in two lines from Ken’s poem based on Galatians 5:
‘Gentleness, Love yielding to all that is not sin;
Goodness, Love in actions, that flow from Christ within.’

From a family card game to a school, to west England and East Africa – to the heart of Christ. Serendipity? The Holy Spirit? God is all and in all, moving in mysterious ways. Lord give us eyes to see and ears to listen.

Mel Adams