Dear Friends
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whose inestimable mercy we have been born again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is incorruptible, unspoilt and unfading. [1 Peter 1:3,4]
One of my all-time favourite pop groups is The Carpenters and one of my all-time favourite songs of theirs is from back in the 1970s, called ‘We’ve only just begun’. That title hid a very sad irony, for beneath the surface all was not well for the lead singer Karen Carpenter. In 1974, aged just 24, she died from a heart attack after suffering for years with anorexia. There was so much promise in that song and in Karen’s life but her life, like ours, whilst offering so much that is special, was lived alongside the spectre of disillusionment, heartbreak, suffering and death and the certain knowledge that nothing in this life lasts forever.
But the simple message of that song ‘We’ve only just begun’ is at the heart of the gospel. Here at Baginton Road we have only just begun finding out what it means to be a merged church. For me, Ted and I have only just begun exploring what it might mean to be retired and living away from you all here.
Whoever we are, whatever we have faced or will face, God is with us, holding out the prospect of a fresh start, new horizons to explore. It is true even in the face of death for we have been born again into new and living hope, of life extending beyond this world to a kingdom with no end. We can live each moment in the context of the God who makes all things new, the God who enables us confidently to declare: we’ve only just begun.
God bless you all
Yvonne