brick, beautifully worn in places.  The graveyard is full of old tombs.  The church splits the village in half and at certain times of the day families traipse through the church yard to get to the upper half of the village to walk to and from school.  Life and death walk hand in hand.  In deep winter there is a profound silence caused by deep layers of snow. In Spring the church path, made of old grave stones, is festooned with primroses peeping out of every nook and cranny.  In Spring the trees in the graveyard and around the church burst into fresh green leaf.  For nearly a millennium people have worshipped Jesus in this place.  As they do to this very day.  I find it an old wonderful place full of light, life and promise.  This is the country Church featured in our poster.  Richard has captured new life in the leaves, dappled light and shade, the church tower reaching up to Heaven and God, and the sombre reminder that death waits for us all.

Yet it is not really old at all when you think about the life of the Son of God.  How big is your vision of Jesus Christ?  In the first book of the Bible we have a little hint He was there in the beginning.  We read  Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."  (Gen 1:26 (ANIV) The plural word us is in the Hebrew.  The name for God is in the plural form. God is one, yet plural – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The writer of the Proverbs suggests that as the personification of Wisdom Jesus existed before time, space and matter came into being.  

Ages ago I was set up, at the first,

before the beginning of the earth.

When there were no depths

I was brought forth,

when there were no springs

abounding with water.

Before the mountains had been shaped,