In February 2021, we supported the Show the Love campaign, run by the Climate Coalition, which aims to raise awareness of the climate crisis.
Using one of our Prayer Walks, we invited people to send in photos to show the beauty and wonder of God’s creation in our local area. We also asked for photographs of things that inspire us to take action to care more for our Environment.
We used these to create a gallery of photos here on our website to remind us of the beauty and wonder of our world, which God has created — even tiny, hidden details such as in the heart of the snowdrop’s flower. We hope you enjoy them.
Thoughts
After the hustle and bustle of the run-up to Christmas and New Year, January can seem to be a “dark” month. And, whilst February has afternoons that are getting lighter, it can seem to be a “cold” month — as 2021 has shown yet again!
Yet, whilst out for our daily walks, there are glimpses of the promise that Spring is on the way — Hellebores (Christmas Roses) are flowering, even whilst half-buried in snow; Snowdrops delicately bobbing their white flowers in the blast of the icy wind; the green shoots of Daffodils, surely the most anticipated herald of Spring, erupting from the soil and growing almost visibly day by day.
Lean down close and see the beauty of the snowdrop’s flower.
Gently raise it to glimpse the marvellous detail of its normally hidden inner petals: secret beauty, tucked away and shown only to the observant.
Examine a snowflake as it lands on your coat: glistening in fragile beauty for a moment before melting away. And the delicate detail of ice crystals: frozen on grasses, edging dark leaves, shining on spiders’ silken webs.
Even in the cold depths of Winter there is beauty, and the promise of life to come.
But with Climate Crisis things are changing. Flowers blooming in different months; changing weather patterns; more extreme weather conditions.
As Christians we need to be mindful of God’s Creation, and care for our wonderful world.
So please enjoy our photos, and let them inspire you to look for beauty and wonder yourself as you walk through our world — to look for special things, which make you pause, appreciate, and inspires you to take action to care even more for our world.
Sure, there will be times of bleakness, sadness and loss. But remember that “this too will pass” — and, just as Winter turns to Spring, that hope, happiness and joy will return.
For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
Ecclesiastes 3:1–2, 4
So let the photos of the new growth and Spring flowers erupting after the bleakness of Winter lift your heart as at Easter we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord, and the new life we have in Him.
For his anger lasts only a moment,
but his favour lasts a lifetime!
Weeping may last through the night,
but joy comes with the morning.
Psalms 30:5
