Ship Ashore                     Word on the Week                    27^th March 2021.

Few things capture the imagination more than a maritime disaster.    If the ship is big and its cargo highly visible, then it is newsworthy.   If, in addition, the ship flounders in the Suez Canal, effectively blocking it, then we have all the ingredients of a prime maritime disaster!  

This occurred on Tuesday when the MV EVER GIVEN apparently was blown off course when a 40 knot gust hit the side of the vessel.   Photographs show that the cargo of containers was stacked eight high above the deck and would present considerable wind resistance.   The ship, which is longer than four soccer fields, has been wedged diagonally across the canal, shutting the waterway in both directions.

Ships waiting to use the canal have accumulated at either end of it.   They total 213 at present.   Some may attempt the long route around South Africa but the cost of additional fuel, plus normal ships overheads incurred during the ten-day journey, would take make it unattractive. 

Freeing the vessel is going to require the removal of copious quantities of sand by dredgers and much pushing by five tugboats which are on the scene. Of course the spring tides are due tomorrow and will create an above normal high water level.   They are influenced by the gravitation pull of the moon and reduce in height as the moon waxes only to rise again at the next full moon.

This presents a small window of opportunity which the salvage crews will use to exert the maximum pressure against the side of the vessel coinciding with the high tide.   It is tempting to pray to the Lord that he might send a reduced version of Noah’s flood which got his ark to float in former times (Genesis Chapter 6 verses 13 to 22).

There are also storms which spring up suddenly and can put fear into experienced fishermen, in the Bible.  One occurred to the north in the Lake of Galilee when Jesus was crossing with his disciples.  As St Mark records “A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was asleep in the stern. The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?  Jesus calmed the storm showing that he has authority over nature (Chapter 4 verses 35 – 41).

But it is not usual for Jesus to do a miracle to free an enormous ship which has been designed more as a testimony to man’s greed than to seaworthiness.   The storms that blow today on the bridge of the MV EVER GIVEN are more likely to require Jesus help with repentance and forgiveness between the owners and the ships command; and they may be in short supply!

Spring Equinox                Word on the Week                     20^th March 2021.

It’s that time of year that only happens twice when night and day are approximately the same length.   This is the March equinox.   From now on the days get longer and the nights get shorter – and don’t the birds know it!

The bird song moved up a few decibels this week, helped by the warmer weather and absence of wind.    The notes from some birds such as the Goldcrest belie their tiny size.   The shrill high ‘zee-zee-zee’ is guaranteed to persecute the wearer of hearing aids!

Chaffinch, Robins, Blackbirds and Coal Tits, to name but a few, are in full voice while the Blue Tits are busy house hunting!    They visit the nest boxes which have been idle since last Spring.   They are not easy pleased as both male and female need to agree with the location!

The magpies that successfully bred at the top of the Scotch Pine last year are also prospecting!   In folklore they are an unwelcome bird creating dissidence amongst the other garden birds.   Their fondness of eating their eggs is one of their less endearing qualities.   One for sorrow, Two for mirth, Three for a funeral, Four for a birth is one of a number of Magpie poems!

On the ground natures palate is rich in colour.   At first sight there seems to be a preponderance of yellow.   The primroses and daffodils stealing the show.   However, if you mix in the purple heaths with the blue hyacinths and the crocuses coming through the ground ivy there is a feast for the eyes.

Perhaps it’s the hellebores that in white or purple dress create the wow factor.   They modestly hang their heads concealing their beauty till its discovered by the gardener.   Betty’s preference is for the stinking hellebore – a misnamed plant for sure!   It is evergreen, its dark green leaves, sprouting from a thick stem. The flowers are green also but a lighter, yellowish shade; drooping cup-like shape. Lovely, but there is better.

“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord …” (Psalm 27 verse 4).

Fairest Lord Jesus, ruler of all nature
O thou of God and man the Son
Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honour
Thou, my soul’s glory, joy, and crown.

Beautiful Saviour! Lord of all the nations
Son of God and Son of Man
Glory and honour, praise, adoration
Now and forevermore be thine.

A Royal Mess                  Word on the Week              13^th March 2021.

Family life in the 21^st century is not an easy business but when it has to be lived out in the full glare of the monarchy everything must take on a larger than life appearance.    Harry and Megan’s interview on Monday night had an estimated Irish TV audience of 725,000.   Not bad for an interview!

The couple had a tough assignment.   They had decided that royal life was not for them and had sought to put together a part-time post.   In it they would cut out most of the functions but keep the perks.   The perks that the interview highlighted were titles and security.   The latter gives an insight into the sort of life that goes with fame and the anxieties that attach to the name of Windsor.

Megan did most of the talking and delivered the two ‘bombshells’ well.   They were the charge of racism (Megan is of mixed race) from the palace and lack of help when Megan felt suicidal.   The interviewer, Oprah Winfrey, has a sphinx like face which betrayed little emotion.  She extracted the maximum impact from the interviewees words by using minimal words and subtle facial inflections.

Megan’s father, Thomas, when asked what he thought of the interview said “Megan has ghosted all of her family on both sides”.   ‘Ghosted’ according to the Oxford Dictionary is explained by the statement ‘being ghosted is one of the toughest ways of being dumped’.  

Piers Morgan’s claim on Good Morning Britain that he “didn’t believe” her when she said she had suicidal thoughts and failed to get mental health support from within the royal household. It cost him his job.   Piers clearly values free speech more than the job he has held down for a number of years!

Will it sink the monarchy?   For all its faults the monarchy, since Brexit, is one of the few assets the UK have left.   The Pomp and Circumstance are coveted by EC. The Queen, who has the task of reconciling the matter, has maintained contact with her grandson Harry.    She is a godly person and will realise that before reconciliation can flow there is the hard work of repentance and forgiveness to be worked out on both sides.

All this depends on a willingness for those involved to want it to happen.  The prodigal son would never have returned home if he had not been hungry (St Luke Chapter 15 verse 17).   It may be some time before Harry gets hungry and at age 94 his grandmother will want the process to keep moving!

Families have the power to inflict the maximum hurt or the maximum good on one another.   May God give them the desire to sort it out.

Who am I?                       Word on the Week                     6^th March 2021.

The question of one’s identity is about the most personal thing that can happen to you.    To be told you are not who you thought you were, as brought out by the wrongdoings chronicled in RTÉ Investigates: Ireland’s Illegal Adoptions (RTÉ One, last Wednesday) are devastating.

It is who you think you are that enables you to play your part in society with self-assurance.    How you were treated as a child has a lot to do with the confidence you bring to life’s decisions.   To be told, later in life, that your parents are not your birth parents, as one person said “Takes time to process”.

Apparently there are 126 cases of falsely registered births where the adoptees names were substituted for those of the birth parents.  This number has now increased to 151 and there are thought to be many more.   The church agency St Patricks Guild which handled these cases is currently being wound up.

In an attempt to trace her siblings one adoptee was given the name of a birth sibling living in the United States. They met over the internet and bonded. A DNA test subsequently revealed the initial information had been incorrect: they were not related at all!   She said she wanted to scream!

There has been some question of these birth records being classified information under the GDPR privacy legislation which would prevent Tusla sharing information about adoptees’ biological families.   There should be no such restriction.

To know who your Mother is, where and when you were born is a self-evident right.   Whether or not you have siblings and their circumstances is also information of prime importance to establishing who you are.   But the best anchor of all is to be a Christian, a son or daughter of the living God.  

And this is not by random chance but “He chose us in him before the creation of the world” (Ephesians Chapter 1 verse 4).   That is from all eternity God the Father has been gathering a family – the Children of God.     

This choice is effective in the world through Christ as St Peter said “it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God (St Peter Chapter 1 verses 18 -21).

Your identity is secure in the family of God.