20th February 2022: Letter from the Locum Minister Rev Marion Paton

Dear Friends,
Today, whilst I have been working in my study, my friends Eric and Alan, who used to look after my garden in Dundee for many years, have been painting my fence. And I have been plying them, and myself, with cups of tea. The fence was painted last year, but was already beginning to look a little shabby, and a fresh coat of paint has certainly brightened it up. When they have finished, they are going to tidy up the garden after the ravages of the worst of the winter. Meanwhile, apart from providing them with cups of tea, I have been working on the service that comes with this letter. All of us working hard but using very different skills.
Isn’t it a good job we are all different and have different skills? Isn’t it a good job that we are all unique and special? I think we sometimes forget just how much we rely on each other as we make our journey through life. I have heard people say, ‘O he is just a labourer, or, she’s just a housewife’. We could equally well say ‘He’s just a scholar, she’s just a doctor’. There is no ‘just’ about it, these and many others, are all important callings in life and we couldn’t do without any of them. Nor could the fence do without being painted as it would eventually fall apart without this care.
When Jesus was in the boat with his disciples, they panicked in the storm because they were scared, and they thought he didn’t care. But just the knowledge of his presence with them, just a word from him, and all was well again.
The life of the world is going through a very stormy patch at present. Because of this, we all need to be able to trust and rely on each other in order to keep everything going as it should. In the great scheme of things, we are all so important. But most important of all is the knowledge that we are promised that God in Christ will always with us through his Spirit and that we can always trust in him and rely on him. That promise bring with it great comfort in these difficult times. In the Gospel of St Matthew, we find these words of Jesus ‘Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age’. Thanks be to God
With love and blessings,
Marion