Today we had a wonderful day with some of our young people, walking around the Rare Breeds Centre in Ashford. I've never been there before or even knew it existed, but it will definitely be a place I go to again.
I think my favourite area was the petting zoo, particularly the piglets (which moved far too fast to get decent pictures of!) and this giant rabbit Barney
Due to its location (not much signal on EE), and the fact we were eyes on youth, all the time. I found myself only getting out my phone to take pictures. In fact, that was just my work phone, my personal phone rarely saw the light of day.
God's been speaking to me lately through three/four words: let go, presence and presents. Today I was able to be fully present, aware of the sights, sounds, smells, feels and taste (they make a great luxury hot chocolate!). We paused a lot, took things slowly, noticed details, stayed a little longer than maybe we would usually. We returned, we sat, we waited for animals to come to us. We were present.
A few weeks ago, our worship team met together. We took time to just rest in God's presence, no agenda, just praising and waiting. One of the things we felt prompted to do was scrunch up our hands as if holding on tightly to something. We then slowly opened them to prophetically symbolise letting go. I feel like that has been my prayer over the last two months, particularly with the house move - God, help me to let go. It seems to be connected to the presence thing.
I feel like for the Christmas season one thing I have let go of is social media. I find it eats up time, diminishes my 'presence', changes my emotions (in this current climate), and provides a form of false presence. I'll let you know how that one goes!
'Presents' is still a mystery to me, although last night I suddenly woke up to search for a present I thought I'd lost. I found it in a box, that I had searched over and over during the day, clearly missing the present it contained (amongst a lot of other items). I do wonder though if letting go, presence, and presents are interwoven with each other, and if over the coming months they will begin to unveil a tapestry and testimony.
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