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A few years ago I was sitting near a window, and happened to look out when I saw a large round straw bale in the field coming down the hill, gathering momentum, out of control and come crashing into a dry stone wall – finishing up in a quiet lane at the bottom with luckily no one in the way to get injured.
The cause of this path of destruction was maybe only known to me and the farmer who would have later collected the bale and noticed the damage done to his boundary wall. My brother-in-law once had a similar experience of a stray bale trundling down a hill and hitting his car, but that story is for another day! A few weeks ago, I noticed a young lad start to selectively pick out the rocks from the undergrowth at the base of that same wall and begin to rebuild it.
Perfect Again
It remained in a state of half-repair until suddenly, today I was walking past and up that very same lane when I glanced up to see that it was all completed and newly rebuilt as a perfect dry stone wall again! I thought to myself, what a work of art, and it would have certainly needed a trained eye and patient hand to be able to choose, place and re-create such a masterpiece.
By God’s Power
Having just celebrated Easter Sunday together, we can give thanks for the life, death and resurrection of God’s Messiah, come to bring healing and mend our broken world. The picture of that dry stone wall reminds me that the same power which raised Jesus to new life that first Easter day is at work today; mending broken hearts, healing hurting lives, restoring fractured relationships and giving those who seek Him a fresh start and a new hope for the future.
The prophet Isaiah wrote:
“See, I am doing a new thing!”
Isaiah 43:19
Just as I was surprised and excited to glance up and see that stone structure restored, may we all begin to look for and grasp what God wants to do in shaping and transforming our community, businesses, homes and lives this Easter season and beyond. Things which we might think impossible are certainly possible in God’s hands!
May God bless you
Rev Charles Burton
Published in the May edition of the Parish Magazines 2025.
Featured image by courtesy of Unsplash.