It's that time of year when most people have a break of some sort. Some will stay at home but try to vary the normal routine so that they can benefit from a change which they say is as good as a rest. Others will head off for the hills, the countryside or the seaside. It's great to watch youngsters enjoying themselves for hours on the beaches; building sand castles which they then proceed to knock down; digging holes which they endlessly try to fill with water from the sea, carrying bucketload after bucketload and all to no avail as it drains away as fast as they fill it.
There is a beach in one part of the world where hundreds of starfish are washed up by particularly high tides at some times of the year and, of course, they are stranded and subsequently die.
A visitor was walking along that beach one day when so many starfish were lying on the sand and he saw a small boy hurrying backwards and forwards from the starfish to the sea. As he came closer, he saw that on each occasion, the boy was carrying a starfish carefully back down the beach and placing it in the water. "Why are you doing that?" he asked. "There are thousands of them and what you're doing with one or two won't make any difference."
The little boy looked at him but didn't answer. He just picked up another starfish and took it to the sea. When he had done so, he looked up and shouted to the man, "It will to that one."
So sometimes what we do in life doesn't sem to achieve very much, like building castles and knocking them down or filling holes in the sand with water. We just want to continue doing it and it's great fun. We need a lot of fun, of creativity and imagination in our lives yet sometimes we wonder what effect the little that we can do can possibly have on the rest of the world but everything we do to help someone has a huge effect on their lives.
Paul says, "I showed you that it is our duty to help the weak in this way, by hard work, and that we should keep in mind the words of the Lord Jesus, who himself said, 'Happiness lies more in giving than receiving.' "
Steve Campbell
Interim Moderator
Tel: 01284 787664
August 2009