Thought for the Week - 7/2/2021

Dear Friends, 

I’m sure like me you would have been saddened to learn of the death of Captain Sir Tom Moore this week. ‘Captain Tom’ as he became affectionately known last year caught the imagination of the world with his sponsored walk in his garden in the lead up to his 100th birthday, hoping to raise £1,000 for NHS Charities Together. In one of his first interviews he said, ‘One small soul like me won’t make much difference’. He eventually raised over £32 million, which has been described as ‘nothing short of remarkable’. Tributes have been paid to him from around the country, together with a personal message from the Queen who knighted Captain Sir Tom last Summer in recognition for this unique contribution. The retired vicar from the parish church in the village where Captain Sir Tom lived, remembered him as a ‘lovely gentleman’, adding that ‘he didn’t have a stress-free life… but his attitude was always to put your best foot forward, lift your chin up and meet what comes’. And from a message from the children of the village school it said that ‘they were lucky enough to be living next door to their own superhero… We won’t remember a caped crusader but a superhero who showed us how to spread kindness and compassion to a whole world of people’. In that sense, one seemingly small and insignificant act in the grand scheme of things led to an amazing and astounding result. I’m reminded of the old gospel chorus that we used to sing in Sunday School, written by Kurt Kaiser who says he was sitting at home one evening watching the remnants of a fire and the thought came to him that ‘It only takes a spark to get a fire going’, which inspired him to write the song of that title in around 20 minutes. It is in those small acts of kindness and compassion, love, generosity and self-sacrifice that we see the act of Captain Sir Tom catching the imagination of thousands of others and bringing something positive and good in a time of challenge. But it is also a recognition that there are hundreds of thousands of these small acts of kindness and goodness taking place each and every day pointing to a beacon of hope and light, and for which we can be truly thankful to God.

Grace and peace,

Neil          

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