Reflection for the Bridge magazine

We’re entering the season when the song of the birds will largely fall silent. It isn’t the songs which have changed but our ability to hear them. We will not be hearing the sounds as we walk in the woods or drop children at school because the birds are singing their songs far away. The Manx Shearwater will be singing in Argentina, the Arctic tern makes it sounds in Antarctica and the Willow Warbler now warbles its voice 5,000 miles away in the African Spring.

Some birds remain in the UK and because they stay, if we listen, we can become attuned to the beauty of their voices. Our noises often drown this quieter sound from our ears.

Humanly, we each enter different seasons when there seems to be a silence of the soul. The noise of change, uncertainty or fear means that we no longer hear the beauty that we thought we knew so well. We are left with a season that seems to be silent and maybe even a place of desolation or emptiness.

The cause of the change of season is likely to be far beyond our control and there is a lesson from the birds in this as they adapt and migrate. We cannot keep living as if we only have one season of life, employment, God’s creation or in any number of situation that you may be thinking of as you read this.

Things are constantly changing around us, but we can be so used to drowning the changes out that we keep living as if this season will last for ever and that we are in control of this. Accepting that seasons change means accepting loss, and loss is painful, but there is often a new light or we hear the sounds of life differently as we emerge into a new season.

Personally, I have entered a new season with some of my family growing up and growing away. As a local community, we are in a very different season to where we were two or three years ago. As a church in Godalming and locally, we are entering a new season as Busbridge and Hambledon Church becomes an important part of a new venture we are calling Godalming Minster.

In these season changes, the song does not fall silent. The song continues and it may be healing and helpful to consider it as simply being in a different tone, a different place or a different volume. The song doesn’t change because, the Christian faith knows that the deepest song of the soul can be secure. The song of the soul is to seek the Lord and be renewed every morning as we head into this time of autumn and winter. The Psalms put it like this:

“Arise, my soul, and sing his praises! I will awaken the dawn with my worship, greeting the daybreak with my songs of light.”

Why not spend a moment reading those beautiful words by taking them into your own soul for comfort and then listen careful the next time you hear a quiet song of the birds.