Winskill's Hay Meadows

The hay meadows up on Winskill are looking lovely at the moment.  It’s taken the farmer a good number of years to achieve this, an ongoing process of carefully regulated grazing and mowing to allow the flowers to bloom and set seed so that the meadows will look as good – or better – as the years go by.  Not, perhaps,  quite up to the standard of a Swiss alpine meadow, but not bad for a Yorkshire hill farm!

Yet in a few short weeks it will all be gone.  Two things came to mind as I walked through the fields the other day, an encouragement and a warning.

First the encouragement, from the lips of the Saviour Himself:

Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not worry… For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

                                                                                                Matthew 6:30-33

But the hay meadow carries a warning too, a reminder of the brevity of life and the transient nature of all our worldly accomplishments:

The voice said, “Cry out!”  And he said, “What shall I cry?”

“All flesh is as grass, and all its loveliness as the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades,

Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it.

Surely the people are as grass,

The grass withers, the flower fades,

But the word of our God stands forever.”

                                                Isaiah 40:6-7

And that word tells us that it is only by repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus that we can be put right with God, and neither should we delay!

Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name given among men by which we must be saved.

                                                                                                          Acts 4:12

 For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.”  Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

                                                                                                2 Corinthians 6:2

Saviour, if of Zion’s city

I through grace a member am,

Let the world deride or pity,

I will glory in Thy Name:

Fading is the worldling’s pleasure,

All his boasted pomp and show;

Solid joys and lasting treasure

None but Zion’s children know.

                             John Newton