“Pilgrim Service”
Sunday 11th December 2016 6.00 pm
St James’ Church, Shaftesbury
During the wild, winter weather Pilgrim’s path brings him to a bridge over a river, now carrying trees and flotsam in its path rushing in a torrent rapidly downstream.
He sees with dismay that the centre part of the bridge has been washed away as the middle supports have disappeared. Wondering what to do now, his gaze is caught by a flash of light from the far bank. Glancing up, he sees the sun reflected off the blade of an axe carried by a sturdy lumber-jack walking along the path out of the forest towards him.
As luck would have it a lone pine is leaning dangerously over the track, and maybe this man could fell it and somehow fashion the trunk into a makeshift bridge?
This week our theme is "Mending bridges" and reminds us that to rebuild bridges in our relationships with others both takes a willingness on our own part to acknowledge our share of the damage, and also grace on God's part, which helps all involved to re-build the bridge for us.
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