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Good Morning

On my bedside table I keep a small, worn New Testament which was a gift to my younger brother in the year of his birth, 1961, from the church where he was baptized.  He died at the age of 11, and from that moment on, my mother kept the tiny book beside her bed and read it voraciously, as if the words could keep her alive.

It’s pocket-sized, smaller than an open hand, with tissue-thin pages and a dark blue cover which is coming away at the spine. At the back it has the Scottish Paraphrases, which are psalms re-worked into verse form for singing. 

One of the Paraphrases I often read at night is based on verses from the book of Hosea.  I like the last two verses best:  ‘As show’rs that usher in the spring and cheer the thirsty ground: So shall his presence bless our souls, and shed a joyful light: That hallow’d morn shall chase away the sorrows of the night’

There’s a Russian proverb which I found I’d scribbled in one of my notebooks from many years ago:  ‘Morning is wiser than evening’.    I think it means holding on till morning, enduring the ‘sorrows of the night’ until day comes and the world can look different.  When, perhaps, you find a strength which deserted you in the night; when, perhaps, the light of day brings renewed determination and hope; when, perhaps, though the world is a bleak and dangerous place to face each day, some touch of comfort will be there.

God  - to those who grieve, and are hungry; to those who live with violence, and those who have nowhere to lay their heads – grant light and comfort this morning.  Amen