Soon I will see the lines on His face

I've been reading a really interesting book by Donald Miller called 'Blue Like Jazz'. It's his own journey towards faith. Here's a great quote:

'I am early in my story, but I believe I will stretch out into eternity, and in heaven I will reflect upon these early days, these days when it seemed God was down a dirt road, walking towards me. Years ago He was a swinging speck in the distance; now He is close enough I can hear His singing. Soon I will see the lines on His face.'

How wonderful. May I always hear Him singing. And one day, too, I will be so close as to see the lines on His face.

Peak District beauty

One of my birthday presents from Roh was a new pair of walking boots- my previous pair had been bought when I was still a boy scout and were actually 35 years old! They knew how to make boots back then!

Anyway, last week I enjoyed two days in the Peak District with Roh, walking down Dovedale and Wolfcote Dale, trying out the new boots. What beauty! It was a cold couple of days and the weather changes from sunshine to hail and back again pretty quickly. The Peak District looks to be a couple of weeks behind Peterborough in the arrival of spring, so the wild daffodils were just opening, and buds were on the trees.

I'm not much of a bird watcher, but we also saw a Dipper, quite an amazing bird with a flight and speed not far away from a hummingbird.

It's such a long time since Roh and I have done any serious walking. I think this may be the first of many adventures with the new boots!

Pretty Amazing Grace

I'm not particularly a Neil Diamond fan, but caught the premier of his new single on the Simon Mayo show on Radio 2. Clearly, he has a Christian faith as he has written and reworked the theme of 'Amazing Grace'. His new single is called 'Pretty Amazing Grace' and here's some of the lyrics:

'Pretty amazing grace is how you saved me
And with amazing grace, reclaimed my heart
Love in the midst of chaos
Calm in the heart of war
Showed with amazing grace
What love is for

You overcame my loss of hope and faith
Gave me a truth I could believe in
You led me to that higher place
Showed me that love, truth, hope, grace
Were all I needed'

Simon Mayo (himself a Christian) has made it his record of the week.

Necker Island

Amazing. I still can't quite believe it. In fact when the phone call came in, as it was April 1st, I thought it was an 'April Fool'- but it wasn't.

I'm a 'gold frequent flyer' with Virgin Atlantic and as such, am entered into an annual prize draw. And out of 4,500 others, I was picked out.

The prize? An all expenses paid week for two on Richard Branson's private island in the Caribbean, plus first class flights there and back. The island is called Necker Island and it's part of (of course) the Virgin Islands. We go at the end of September.

It's our 30th wedding anniversary this year, and I can't think of a better way of celebrating. I know we have a lot of friends praying for us right now, for a new job, due to redundancy. As one of our friends said the other day- this is God's way of saying 'chill- enjoy the break - I'm in charge!'