We once lived in the Huon Valley, south of Hobart in Tasmania. The
normally tranquil Huon River that has its origins in the rugged southwest
wilderness, home of the famous Huon Pine, flows along the bottom of our
garden and out to sea. Two years ago we had several floods, one very
serious, that brought a lot of fallen timber down river including some
quite large trees.
I managed to salvage enough timber washed up at high tides to provide
firewood for many months. But as I’ve stood on the bank of the river much
has floated by, out of reach, to end up who knows where. Someone elses
firewood perhaps or will it drift on, out to sea, never to be seen again?
It caused me to think about life. Like those out-of-reach logs ‘we shall
not pass this way again’. I’m not being morbid - I have so much to give
thanks for - but it does make you think. Every day brings its work, its
opportunities, its responsibilities. What are we doing? Time runs through
our hands like those logs down the river. It never stops, it moves on
never to come again.
We can’t accomplish all we would like to do. We can’t sow every field we
see but we can drop a few seeds by the way as we pass along in fellowship
with the Great Sower. There is no seed so small that it does not
propagate and multiply itself. That small seed that seems almost nothing
in the great scheme of things can become a harvest - thirty, sixty or a
hundred times what we have sown.
There is a law of nature that all things leave some mark behind them. What
will be our mark? “None of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies
to himself alone.” If we feel the greatness of life, its possibilities and
the value of things which fill every moment, it would colour every thought,
word and deed with a conviction of what must be. We must seek that divine
grace which will make us a blessing to those that come after, marks that
will secure the Lord’s ‘well done’ commendation in the life to come.
Have a good week.
Pastor Ron
Optional Bible readings: Mark 4:1-20 and Romans 14:5-8
This is one of a series of weekly messages of encouragement, now in its
fourth year, originating from the Derwent Valley, near Hobart, Tasmania,
Australia. A companion Bible study page is available each week. To
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Pastor Ron Clarke JP (Mark 16:15)
An e-mail from the Derwent Valley, near Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
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