Dear friends
After torrential rain in July, some of the magnificent pink hollyhocks in the Deanery garden lay battered, flat to the ground. You may know that I make no claim to being a gardener. I leave the garden to my husband and the small team of volunteers who come to help most weeks. This is their first year of planting Hollyhocks and I was excited to see the tall flamboyant plants emerging, but only to be flattened to the ground. The stems were both bent and partially broken.
So, we hauled them up! It took two of us, one to support the stems and the other to thread them through a support with a circular hoop. The hoop on its own did not have sufficient strength to support the stems, heavy with flowers, so we drove three strong metal stakes through the hoop and into the ground. Voila! The plant was upright again, rising about six feet above the ground.
And then it kept growing, the bedraggled flowers recovered and opened into great blooms. A surprise to me, the stems even seemed to repair themselves, with little scars remaining as the only sign of the fall.
The gorgeous Hollyhocks, now towering over our heads have spoken to me in recent weeks of the miracle of recovery and of the ability of God’s creation to be repaired and restored. And that can include us too. Few of us escape a fall, a battering, a time when the weight of life’s difficulties brings us low. When we are brought down to rock bottom, we may need some help to get up again, perhaps help will come from the love of family and friends, or from medical or other professionals who offer care and support. The important thing is to accept help.
And I’ve been reflecting on those strong stakes, anchored deeply, continuing to hold the Hollyhock upright. For people of faith, times of weakness or testing can also be times of growth through reliance on God’s grace. Learning that we can rely on that grace. So, although we’d never chose adversity, it can lead to a blessing, as faith deepens through the experience of adversity.
Perhaps in quiet time this summer, you might reflect on the beliefs that uphold you when times are hard. For me, these three ‘stakes’ remain trustworthy and true: Faith, in God’s loving purposes for each of us; Hope, that we are surely being led into God’s future; Love, as both the way and the purpose of life.
I hope that you have some rest, recovery and growth in these summer days,
I’ll close with a prayer by a former Bishop of Durham, James Pilkington, 1520 – 76:
Hold us fast, O Lord of Hosts,
That we fall not from thee.
Grant us thankful and obedient hearts,
That we may increase daily in the love, knowledge and fear of thee.
Increase our faith, and help our unbelief.
That being provided for and relieved of all our needs
by thy fatherly care and providence,
we may live a godly life,
to the praise and good example of thy people,
and after this life may reign with thee for ever;
Through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Amen.
With blessings and best wishes,
The Very Revd Catherine Ogle
Dean of Winchester