Sunshine beamed through the windows of the Village Hall, although it was cold outside, and memories of the harsh winter were dimmed. Under the title Spring has Sprung! and only a week before Mother’s Day, the adults at the March 7th Squeeze Breakfast club were busy rolling multi-coloured sheets of paper and binding them in place with florist’s wire. Each roll was then teased out into a giant ‘dahlia’ to be given to those mothers attending the next Sunday. Some of the children had tried this, but found it difficult for little fingers and had graduated to making Mother’s Day cards

Pastor Jim Beveridge took up the theme with his Topical Talk: The Spring weather gives the chance to explore neglected parts of the garden. Venturing across wet grass, the brown stumps of former plants, layers of dead foliage, and frost damage remains. As the debris is cut away and leaves are cleared, we find some nodules, nodules of green. Green shoots, new shoots. Life springs at Springtime.

To achieve new growth in the garden, it is best to cut away the dead and withered remains of leaf and branch. This is a picture from Nature that is helpful to us as we enter a new Season, a new Spring of our lives. Best to cut away the dead works or finished part of our lives, to clear away past debris to allow new life to grow unhindered.

Spring clean the areas of life that are worn and, frankly, past their “sell by date.” Re-energise the run down springs; receive new springs – of living water, of streams of living water of the river of Life. Don’t paddle in the winter shallows – dive into the refreshing, effervescent Spring Waters. Spring into New Life! Spring has Sprung! Have you?

These verses from the Bible (Isaiah ch.43, vv18 and 19) spring to mind., and may help you: “See I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and making streams in the wasteland.” Do not paddle – be immersed. And expect the unexpected. Like Jesus making a way where there seemed to be no way. Try saying ‘YES’ instead of “no way.” Amen

Please note: There will be no Squeeze Breakfast Club in April as the first Sunday falls on Easter Day. We shall meet in our own Church at Chapel Row on that date for Easter Worship.

Laughter from the Free Church on a Saturday evening could only mean one thing. – “In the Beginning” had begun. Two actors and a sound engineer from the Saltmine Theatre Company presented a fresh look at the Bible’s Book of Genesis. ‘Adam’ strolled in wearing only his trousers to a murmur of appreciation from the ladies. ‘Eve’ volunteered from the audience, but could not read her part because she had left her specs in her handbag.
Scenery was minimal; simply three large screens in blue, red and gold. A household step-ladder stood in for the ladder between heaven and earth in Jacob’s dream. A pink wig was enough to transform Abraham’s wife Sarah into his supposed sister. And their discussion on the subterfuge in Northern tones (the company is based in Dudley) reminded the older ones of Robb Wilton.

The audience sang-along to Noah’s Ark with a humourous version of “Singing in the Rain,” and later rendered the ooh-ooh-ooh bits of “Any dream will do” as Jacob interpreted Pharaoh’s dream of the seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine.

“This was riveting and fast-moving entertainment with a few poignant moments,” in the opinion of one man. “Especially the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac if the Lord so desired it, which brought home to me the death of Christ to take our deserved punishment.”

NASA finds missing day

Falling only a week before Valentine’s Day, the theme of the February Squeeze Breakfast Club was “Love your neighbour.” Handicrafts majored on that, and ranged from Promise Boxes, making heart shaped sweets, sewing heart-shaped lavender bags and making friendship cards.

NASA scientists plotting the tracks of sun, moon and planets in 100 and 1,000 years from now, to avoid satellites crashing into them, ran into a problem. The computer could not complete the task because there was a day missing from the past. A Christian on the team drew attention to the book of Joshua, ch10, verses 8, 12 and 13; where Joshua calls on the Lord to halt the sun and moon. Verse 13 states, “So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and the moon stayed, ….about [approximately] a whole day “ But the missing time from Joshua’s era accounted for only 23 hours and 20 minutes.

Then the Christian turned to 2 Kings 20 vv 9-11 where Hezekiah asked for proof that he would not die. Do you want the shadow on the sundial to go forward ten degrees, or backward, asked the prophet Isaiah? He chose backward. “Isaiah spoke to the Lord, and the shadow went back ten degrees,” thus providing the extra 40 minutes to make up the missing day.

After this gem from the internet, Pastor Jim Beveridge turned those at the Squeeze Breakfast Club to First Corinthians ch.13, to show what love is – patient, kind, always protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres and never fails. And finally to the ultimate Love, John ch3, v16., “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Have you, will you, receive God’s love, the Gift of Jesus, this Valentine’s Day?”

Next Squeeze for all ages at the Village Hall on Sunday 7th March, 10am-12 noon.

Our White Christmas lowered the average age of the Christmas Day congregation considerably, as the snow kept many older regulars at home but not the younger and bolder ones who only visit from time to time. What was Christmas like in the days when we were young? asked Pastor Jim Beveridge, answering with Dylan Thomas’s description in “Conversation about Christmas.” *

“Snow was not only shaken in whitewash buckets down from the sky. I think it came shawling out of the ground and swam and drifted out of the arms and hands and bodies of the trees and settled on the postman opening the gate, like a dumb, numb thunderstorm of white torn from Christmas cards.

“And the Church Bells? They rang their tidings over the bandaged village, over the frozen foam of the parks and ice-cream hills, over the crackling grass. And the Presents? There were the Useful Presents, – engulfing mufflers and mittens, made for giant sloths and balaclavas for victims of head-hunting tribes. And pictureless books and everything about the wasp – except why.

“And on Christmas Eve I hung at the foot of my bed Bessie Bunter’s black stocking, and always I would stay awake all the moonlight, snowlit night to hear the roof-alighting reindeer and see the hollied boot descend through soot. I was asleep before the chimney trembled and the room was red and white with Christmas.

“And in the stocking above, were there sweets? Of course there were sweets. There were marshmallows that squelched. Hardboileds, toffee, fudge and allsorts, crunches, cracknels, humbugs, glacies and marzipan and butterscotch. And troops of bright red soldiers, and Snakes and Families and Happy Ladders. And last of all, in the toe of the stocking, a silver sixpence.

“Why can’t our Christmas be the same for me as it was for you when you were young? , “I mustn’t tell you – I mustn’t tell you – because it is Christmas now,” he concludes.

So what MUST I tell you today, asked Pastor Jim. Hear the Word of God about the Child born on Christmas Day, and turning to another Book, he read from Isaiah chapter nine, verse two: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light ,those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.” And then to verse six, “For to us a child is born, to us a child is given and the government will be upon his shoulder and his name will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of peace”

Finally to Luke chapter one, verses 30 to 33: “And the angel said do not be afraid Mary, for God has been gracious to you. You shall conceive and bear a son and you shall give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will bear the title Son of the Most High – his reign shall never end.”

Pastor Jim closed with ‘a sort of parable,’ the story of a little girl who kept clamouring for attention when father wanted to read his paper. In the end he took a map of the world from the paper and tore it into small pieces. “Go into the other room and try to put this together.” In a very short while she was back with the map correctly in place.

“How did you manage to do that so quickly?” asked. her amazed father. She showed him that on the other side of the map had been a picture of Jesus. “When I got Jesus in His place, the world came out all right.”

Christmas is about getting Jesus in his rightful place in our lives, and keeping
Him there, so that our world and our lives come out all right.

* Appeared under the author’s name in an edition of Picture Post during 1947