Kirkcaldy Free Church

Driving home from Crail a week or so ago, we noticed long sections of the hedgerow draped with what looked like spiders’ webs. From a visit to the Cornalees Centre in the hills above Greenock many years ago, when we saw a whole tree covered in a similar way, we knew that this wasn’t the work of spiders. The webs protect the caterpillars of one of the species of the Ermine Moth. The webs enable the caterpillars to feed to their hearts content on the leaves of the hedge or tree, safe from predators. They will strip every leaf from the host before departing.

The ranger at Cornalees, from whom we received all this information, also told us something that has stuck with me all this time. The caterpillars pupate, and when the moth finally begins to break out from the chrysalis, it has a tremendous struggle. Seeing this, well-meaning people sometimes try to help the moth escape by breaking off bits of the chrysalis. This is a disaster! It’s the effort the moth goes through to break out that gives its wings the strength to fly. Without that struggle it will never have the ability to take to the air. Far from helping, the people who do this are condemning the moth to an earthbound existence, making it easy prey for birds and other predators.

That set me thinking. It’s natural for us to try to help and protect those we love. We want to keep them from harm, and to make life as easy as possible for them. So we have a tendency to think that if God allows problems or suffering to enter our lives, He doesn’t love us. Nothing could be further from the truth! Speaking of the trials that afflict us all, the apostle Peter writes: ‘These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.’ (1 Peter 1:7) God is accomplishing something precious in us as we continue to trust Him in our difficulties. Our faith is shown to be the thing of beauty that it’s meant to be.

James says something similar about the strength given to our faith through the struggles we have to endure. ‘Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.’ (James 1:2-4) Far from harming us, the struggles through which our loving heavenly Father brings us, enable faith to take wing and soar, helping us to arrive at the glorious destiny He purposes for us.

We enjoyed another lovely walk last week – along the abandoned railway line at Lower Largo. I counted more than thirty different types of wild flowers blooming on, and alongside, the path. Meadow Cranesbill was at its peak; but there were also plenty of Knapweed, thistles, wild roses, Scabious, Bird’s Foot Trefoil, Poppies, and countless others for which I don’t know the names. Hundreds of moths and butterflies were taking advantage of the bonanza to feed on the nectar – including the Six-Spotted Burnet Moth that loves the knapweed, while its caterpillars feast on Bird’s Foot Trefoil. The moth has glossy black wings with, as the name suggests, six spots. The pictures I’ve seen colour the spots red; but those we saw seemed more like fluorescent pink – dazzling! Our noses were treated to the scents of Meadowsweet and Rosa Rugosa. To one side of us we could hear the lapping of the waves on the shore, and on the other, the song of the skylark – though they were hard to spot against the bright blue sky.

And, of course, this abundant beauty exists on what would have been a scar on the landscape, when the railway line was removed as part of the Beeching Cuts of the 1960s. That prompted me to think of the way God heals the scars of sin in our own lives. Think of these lovely words from Psalm 40:2-3: ‘the Lord… lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.’ God’s grace transforms the ugly scars sin leaves on our lives. Consider the parable of the Lost Son we’ve been looking at recently on Sunday mornings. The young man who’d been living with pigs, and was so hungry he wanted to eat their food, must have been a terrible sight (and smell!) as he staggered home. Yet his father’s love transforms him in an instant: ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.’ (Luke 15:22) And soon the rich aroma of roasting beef filled the air!

A missionary friend worked among the Quechua people of the highlands of Peru. Life in the Andes was very hard for them – particularly the women, who looked aged beyond their years. Yet when they discovered God’s love for them, and were enabled by the Holy Spirit to put their trust in Jesus, he said the years seemed to fall from their faces. God’s grace gave them hope, and joy, that transformed their lives. A novel we’re listening to at the moment describes how guilt over a specific crime aged a handsome man, leaving him ravaged. He knew nothing of God’s grace, and died a lonely death. But those whose hearts God opens to receive the good news about Jesus discover that His grace transforms their lives, bringing peace and joy alongside forgiveness.