holy days

They say that a change is as good as a holiday.

Which may be true - and if it is, then that's what makes a Saturday a holiday for me.

Mainly because it's different, not because it's quiet.

I always knew it was going to be busy today. A whole load of different things to do. People to see and tasks requiring attention.

There's been as always a fair bit of preparation to do again.

Asking someone else to speak to the children at tomorrow morning's service may sound like it means some less work for myself. But there were quite a lot of graphics to be done in that connection and quite a lot of time got spent on that.

There were also people to see, as I say. (I can see you're maybe thinking - so, what's different?)

But in amongst all that there were all sorts of things around the house. Tidying up and cleaning out and scrubbing baths - that sort of thing. Domestic chores of one sort and another. Shopping, cooking, washing, cleaning, ironing. The list goes on and on.

And some tasks in the garden as well. Hardly gardening weather, for sure, but it climbed above freezing at least for some of the time. So I took the chance to do some needed work while the rain and the snow held off. A bit of fresh air and exercise as well.

A mixture today of all sorts. Variety.

Which is back to the theme the earlier part of the week impressed upon my heart.

Variety's writ large across the world in which we live. It seems to be a hallmark of the God who made it all.

And so variety's important in the way we live our lives. And integral, I guess, to how we worship God.

So I'm hoping that what I've embarked upon here, in giving to someone else the task of overseeing both the content and the conduct of our worship here each week - I'm hoping that will help ensure much more of that variety which best reflects the character of God.

'Change', indeed, is somehow bound up with what makes it always very much a truly 'holy day'.