Any holiday plans?

Having exhausted the vastly interesting subject of the British weather, a great conversation starter for any Brit, then at this time of the year, the conversation will often turn to ‘any holiday plans?’ ‘are you going anywhere nice?’

Perhaps this year, we might be trying to work out where we can get go to beat the rather damp weather. Whilst many people have to plan their holidays to coincide with the school breaks, some of us are able to plan around them and go either before the end of July, or later in September or October.

Indeed, I have already been on holiday, spending a fantastic week away with my husband and son, and yet we never left the county … and the sun shone too! We spent the week walking the whole of the Essex Way, the 82 mile series of footpaths from Epping Station to Harwich. Every day, we experienced a different kind of scenery, from lots of woodland the first day, a very muddy day, to the final day when we were walking along salt marshes to the coast, and everything in between. (photo is us at the halfway point)

Holidays are a great time of year, normal rules are suspended, you can get up with you like, go to bed when you like and to some extent, you can do whatever you like. It is a time for living expansively, for exploring new places, for doing things you’ve never done before and experiencing new things. It is a time for enjoying this world and everything in it … and you don’t even need to go far from your own doorstep to have a holiday.

That’s what the biblical idea of sabbath is all about. The bible tells about how God made the world and then, on the sabbath, he rested – not because he was exhausted, but because he wanted to enjoy the world he had made.

Christians believe that God blessed these times of sabbath rest and consecrated them. They are genuinely holy days (holidays) in which we glimpse something more of the abundant grace and generosity of God.

So whatever you are doing, I hope it will be a time of true re-creation. A time in which you can learn the unforced rhythms of grace.

May God bless you

Heather