So what comes to mind when you think ‘ah February‘? It would be easy to talk about the cold and damp, or the frost and icy weather, or the cost of living, especially relative to food and heating bills, or even the argy-bargy of the children and politicians! 🙂
At our church we always taught the children to sing “this is the day that the Lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it”. You might say ‘easier sung that done‘, and we all get that. But nonetheless I’ve found from experience that the words of the other old hymn are true – ‘Trust in the Lord and don’t despair he is a friend so true, no matter what your troubles are Jesus will see you through. Sing while the day is bright, sing in the darkest night, every day all the way let us sing sing, sing!”
We certainly have lots of good things to sing about, and compared with so many others we are truly blessed! Here’s a few photos of what we did on St Valentine’s day/weekend.
Largs and Skelmorlie walks were also very much among our activities last weekend, these locations are less than an hours drive from Glasgow, so we tend to take them for granted, but they are beautiful. Some photos from our weekend visit follow.
Earlier in the month we had a trip to Glasgow’s Transport Museum, but ran out of time looking at the exhibits. Here are a few photos.
On the top right hand photo of this set you will see the horse drawn trams my father told me about, yes, they were still around when he was a boy at the turn of the last century. In the bottom row of cars L > R my first new car an Austin Mini, then a Ford 8 like the one I used for driving lessons and lastly the Hillman Imp that was manufactured in Scotland. On February 14th I also like to remember Voyager 1 and the famous Pale Blue Dot picture taken on Feb.14th 1990 before moving into Interstellar space. What a project, and what an achievement!
This made me smile this week. We have come a very long way since my father’s day and the horse drawn trams, and in such a short time! I checked out on line the Voyager 1 current details. Here are some facts; Launched on 5 September 1977, it is now 15,997,084,950 miles from earth and travelling at 32,210mph and tho’ it will not pass the nearest star, it will come within 1.6 light years of star AC+79 3888 in approximately 40,000 years! (I can’t personally verify the figures 😊) The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second!
Does that all sound a bit like Science Fiction? Whatever, but it looks like it will take some time to confirm these stats!!
But one certain thing I do hope for as a Christian is the return of our Lord, Jesus Christ, just as He promised. To his disciples who were saddened as he spoke of his imminent return to God his Father he said “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
This is a lovely picture of a wedding in Jesus’ time, when the Bridegroom comes for his bride after he has prepared a place for her. as we have elsewhere in the New Testament. Jesus himself illustrates it so well in one of the most solemn parables he ever spoke. It reads like this: Matthew 25:1-13.
THE PARABLE OF THE TEN VIRGINS
At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
“At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
“Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
“‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’
“But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
“Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’
“But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
Now you will have heard the sceptic commenting on this at times when things expected have been delayed, by saying ‘it’s about as likely as the 2nd coming’. But don’t be deceived, Jesus is giving a serious warning. The Apostle Peter in 2 Peter 3:4 says: ‘In the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation’. Peter then goes on to remind them that, ‘a day with the Lord is like a thousand years, and a 1000 years as one day’.
In an earlier blog I commented that scientists in 2024 reset the Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight. In the current global situation, I notice many of the signs Jesus said would precede his coming, are currently happening, along with many other Bible prophecies, so I would suggest to all my readers that Jesus’ warning be taken very seriously.
Therefore keep watch for you do not know the day or the hour! Perhaps today?
This is the great hope of the Christian!
With that thought, I’ll sign off, until the next time DV (Deo Volente)
Hope you enjoyed the blog, as always I’m glad to hear from you wherever you are. Wishing you every blessing.
Matthew
Matthew McKinnon's Blog 