Photo of the month

Don’t forget to send your photos to me, readers love to see these.

Photo: Kevin Champion took this photo in his garden of this female sparrow hawk

Photos: Ken Care

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This will be my final ‘Church Chat’ in the North Weald Village Life. Very shortly, I’ll be moving and starting a new job, leading the Church of England churches in Great Dunmow. I’ve loved being part of the North Weald community over the past couple of years and together with all of you, I’ve been privileged to see the very best of life, and I’ve been humbled as we walked together through some of the hardest times we’ve ever faced.

Through all of this, I’ve noticed that one thing has remained constant. Hope! Hope is a funny thing... We generally understand it as some sort of wishful thinking. We say, “I hope you have a nice day” or “I hope you are well.” Lately, we’ve all been saying, “I hope things soon get back to normal”. For Christians, hope is more than wishful thinking and Easter is the time that we’re reminded about what it really means to hope. Millions of people around the world believe the Easter story is the greatest act of hope the world has ever seen. I’m one of them! Over 2000 years ago, Jesus’ life didn’t seem as if it were ending well. There seemed to be little hope of anything turning out OK. But the astounding result of Jesus’ death on the cross on Good Friday was his resurrection on Easter Sunday; out of the darkness came the hope of new life for the world.

Christians believe that the resurrection of Jesus proved there was no stopping God. Even the power of death cannot hold him. Through the resurrection, Jesus defeated the power of death and in doing so he left all our shame and brokenness in the grave. We don’t need to carry it anymore – there is always hope of a brighter day and the promise of freedom and everlasting life and love. But we still live in the real world and the resurrection doesn’t mean that everything’s perfect yet! We still have to search and sometimes strive, but the reminder that we are ‘Easter people’ who can live in the hope of better days ahead is inside of all of us.

And we’re still celebrating that Easter hope today. It’s more than wishful thinking. It’s the sure and certain hope of God’s promises to us coming true. Hope is the birthplace of love and so maybe this Easter, in between the chocolate, you’ll find some time to ‘hope’ for our world and in doing so, glimpse God’s love for you. Last year, we started the North Weald Sunday Morning Church. It’s a new church full of hope and love. We’ve been meeting on Zoom since Christmas, but services in the church hall (old Scribbles building) will resume later in April and will be led by my colleagues Rev Jaimee and Kate. Keep an eye on our facebook page (facebook.com/ northwealdchurch) and Jaimee will say hello there and introduce themselves in this column next month.

You’re in my prayers, God bless. Rev Tom.