Richard Littledale's
Views on the News: April 2009

Spring

News just in from the Department for International Meteorology (D.I.M) indicates that arrangements for Spring have been modified in the light of the current economic and physical climate. Daffodils will now be a paler shade of yellow, to cut back on unnecessary colouring in the petals. The dawn chorus will be restricted to the first half hour of daylight, so as to ensure fair working conditions for all the birds involved. Bluebell glades will be limited to one clump per hectare, and crocuses caught in contravention of the floral regularity distribution directive (e/347/a) will be removed without delay. It is intended that this Spring-lite will bring all the enjoyment of the season with less extravagance and a greater sense of order.

We would be impoverished indeed if God withdrew, or even modified, the bounty we experience in the natural world. There is something reassuring about the unstoppable yet silent energy of bulbs pushing up relentlessly through unyielding soil, and birds singing at every new sunrise as if it were the first they had ever seen. These simple pleasures are unchanged by all the other threats to our normal life. Many centuries ago, when Job's world was falling apart, God reminded him that even the rising of the sun each day was proof of the Creator's intervention. (Job 38 v. 12 - 14)

Of course, Christians should not avert their gaze from the ills of the world and treat the beauties of nature like a tranquilizer to innoculate them against the harsh realities man has made. There will be plenty of Christians in and around the G20 summit this week, reminding the world's powerful economic leaders that great wealth brings great responsibility. Their noise and their reasoned protest and their concerted prayer will seek to ensure that the plight of the poorest remains on the agenda of the richest. But even whilst they are doing it - the sun will still rise and set, the birds will still sing, and the daffodils will still open up to contribute to the best free show in town.

Many years ago I was taught to sing a song at Primary school about how 'daisies are our silver and buttercups our gold'. For most of the intervening years I have dismissed it as sentimental nonsense.

However, with the gold (?) and silver in my pocket worth less and less - I am coming to appreciate nature's wealth all the more.