To conclude this series looking at the traditions of Lent, this week – Resurrection.
I have been reading the book ‘Rambles in and around Aberdour and Burntisland‘ which was published in 1898. J.C.R. Buckner describes various places in the surrounding area. He describes Aberdour Old Church and states, ‘The ruins are rapidly crumbling to decay. Some old inhabitants when spoken to about their state remark that it is a wonder a single stone remains…’
The above photograph is included. The church had been a ruin for over 100 years no one would have imagined that it would be restored.
Reading that made me think of Resurrection, how the building that was dead was brought back to life, this was through the vision of Rev. Robert Johnstone.
Preaching at the Memorial Service on Easter 1944, his friend of many years, the Rev. J. M. Webster, B.D., of Carnock, told how, shortly after the end of the last war, as the two of them stood together looking at the ivy-clad ruin, Dr Johnstone spoke of “the great longing that was growing up in him that this place, hallowed by the associations of so many centuries, might once more become the House of God for the parishioners of Aberdour.”
Could we have such vision, something that seems dead, with God’s help can be brough back to life?