Thoughtful Moments

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 43, 26 January 1945, Page 2

Thoughtful Moments

LIFE IS SWEET BROTHER ! By Ruby C. Watkins. Life was so very sweet in those eare-free., pre-war days. Do you remember how on long Sunday evenings in summer, people used to walk or drive into the countryside leaving behind them the toil and turmoil of work-day life? You passed them on the country roads parents leading toddlers by the hand whilst older children ran ahead exploring the delights, of the hedgerow- Happy, those little families with peace in their hearts, were content with simple well-earned pleasures that brought refreshment from the daily round of duties. Sunlight on the hills, shaded hollows clusters ' 9 of harebells on steep banks, bluegreen density of distant, woods, meadows knee deep in fragrant flowering mowing grass, richly clacl elm trees around which the black crows circled and changing cloud scenes . . . these were the images etched deeply upon the minds and hearts of all. So they rambled on without haste the parents conversing about a multitude of things— the cost of curtains for the house the political situation the past, the future or death or life. But what was life? Looking at it, we saw ambition and -contentment, joys and cares, weaving themselves into its intricate pattern. Some, had hard weary

lives bereft of material pleasure* and comforts. Others had easy lives, with much of the world's, joys, but very few of heaven's. Some forgot God. Some remembered Him. But always, He was Lliare. Those people walking along the winding' country lanes, absorbed in their individual affairs, were so typical of the world they represented. For nations too AX'ere engrossed *9 '9 in their individual affairs. So engrossed, that they thought evil to be a volcano from which an eruption need no longer be feared. Lulled by apathy and a false sense of security, they did not heed the smouldering embers of old wrongs which pacts, treaties and speecheshad failed to extinguish completely. With them avarice, power-seeking and infamy intermingled with noble achievements, beauty. and great, humble deeds of service to mankind. And in this, way men and nations lived, or seemed to live until that event, tersely described as "the out-,

OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE (Supplied by the Whakatnat: Ministers' Association).

break of \var ? " burst with volcanic intensity upon an unprepared world. We ( in our age had begun to pay homage to civilisation, and progress. Science industry education and social development held us in enthralment. So intent were we upon making our obeisance at the clay feet of the god of civilisation, that we had little or no real thought for the God from whom we receive "every good gilt and every perfect gift," and "with Whom there is no variableness. neither shadow or turning" Because we had no thought for God evil grew apace scarcely checked and with it grew its own destruction. Sin we know to be moral suicide whether engaged in by men. or by nations. For who will not agree that evil is. self-destructive in the ultimate issue? In this global war its destruction has caught up all men everywhere. Scarcely a nation has. not l'elt the. hot breath of battle; almost all have been involved in the conflict. Homes and families everywhere have suffered because of it. Across the whole earth are littered the shattered cities, wrecked homes and ruined altars of civilisation. Chaos everywhere. By what authority > then, dare we call life sweet? We say that it was sweet once — that it is sweet even now. Will it be so in that new world we strive for:?

Surely ! Men's nobly built schemes lor world reconstruction, and a new order may go away. Indeed they

undoubtedly will if they are founded on human wisdom and skill for they are not great enough i'or such a task. But that Avill not take he sweetness, out of life.' For itl is. the presence of God in the affairs of men and nations which gives to life its imperishable beauty and joy, which crowns honest achievement with success and invests' with dignity the labour of our days. As we recognise more fully this presence of God in our world w r e shall receive new strength and counsel to equip us for the task of'pastwar planning. The past years' with their manifold mistakes and futilities, will gain a new significance from them we shall have learned understanding. Then, shall Ave understand the Scriptural promise contained in Joel ii. 22: "I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten . . ." and then shall we. say with assurance "Life is sweet."