Time Changes Everything…

They say that love changes everything. Four weekend stories suggest that time changes everything…

Chatting to an optometrist… He’s sometimes had to tell elderly patients that their sight has deteriorated to such an extent that they’re no longer fit to drive – and that he must inform the authorities.

On the day, the patient may be angry, frustrated, argumentative, confrontational. After reflection, conversation with friends and family, they realise it’s a wise decision.

Time changes opinions.

The news highlighted ‘Forced Adoption’… An estimated 250,000 British women were forced to give up their babies in the decades after World War Two. In the 1960s I worked in a children’s home attached to a ‘home for unmarried mothers’… a Christian charity – thought to be providing a Christian service.

We saw a plaque at Rosemundy House, such a home, in St Agnes, Cornwall. Mothers who ‘lost’ their children, and adopted children across the country, are calling for a formal ‘adoption apology’ from the government.

Time changes attitudes.

I listened to the beautiful Irist folk song  ‘Grace’… Joseph Plunkett was executed for his part in the 1916 Easter Rising… attempting to end British Rule in Ireland… a death-deserving terrorist. Simple.

The song describes his marriage to Grace Gifford, in prison, before his execution… He had childhood tuberculosis and surgery prior to the Easter Rising… He wrote poems about his love for his country, faith, moral principles…

Faithful lover, sick invalid, eloquent poet, loyal patriot, principled Christian. Time changes the simple into something more complex.

Minister-Lou described a picture of a canal and a river… The canal contains stinking, stagnant water; it’s man made, progress along it can only come from human effort. The river contains fresh, natural water; the flow of the river can carry us if we allow ourselves to be taken by the current. Christian faith gives the analogy a spiritual perspective…

Our individual lives, our church-community lives, can be in the canal or the river. Time changes our perception… Realising we’ve been living canal-life we can move to river-life.