9th April 2023
Jeanette Winterson writes: “I have noticed that when all the lights are on, people tend to talk about what they are doing – their outer lives. Sitting round in candlelight or firelight, people start to talk about how they are feeling – their inner lives. They speak subjectively, they argue less, there are longer pauses. To sit alone without any electric light is curiously creative. I have my best ideas at dawn or at nightfall, but not if I switch on the lights – then I start thinking about projects, deadlines, demands, and the shadows and shapes of the house become objects, not suggestions, things that need to done, not a background to thought.”
I think sitting around a fire or candlelight creates a quiet space, a reflective space. There is something incredibly stilling about watching a fire. Maybe we ought to plan for that this Winter. Plan to sit out in your yard with family and friends beside a hot brazier. Perhaps it will create for you and those close to you a space for transformative conversations. Perhaps even moments where God speaks in the stillness and cold. After Jesus was raised, it certainly did for Peter (John 21).
Julian Holdsworth
BSBC Pastor