Reasons To Be Cheerful
David Francis
Horlicks and Ian Dury and the Blockheads!
Not a combination you might think would in any way connects to the inspiration for this week's ditty.
However, Colonel Sir James Horlicks (bedtime drinks magnate, passionate plants man, and collector & breeder of rare rhododendrons) bought the whole Isle of Gigha in 1944. He believed he had found the most perfect conditions in the whole of the British Isles for the cultivation of tropical plants. The renowned Achamore gardens are the result.
Our day long visit to this blessed garden-sanctuary provided "reasons to be cheerful" (Ian Dury reference) at every step.
It's easy to moan - often our default setting feeds off one small inconvenience or another - until we find a cascade of grumbles and murmurings spewing forth, almost without thinking.
Yet a few brief moments contemplating the endless varieties of flowers, trees, plants, birds, and insects buzzing around gardens such as those of Achamore stop you in your tracks.
We had already had prayers for healing & good weather answered that morning, and were feeling positive as the day expanded around us. Getting away from it all seems to blow the grimy, blinkered views of man-made concrete jungles far away.
Societies with no awareness of God's bountiful provision that is all around us tend to migrate to unthankfullness.
2 Timothy 3: 1-5 lists attitudes that folk can drop into, unthankfulness (or ungratefulness) being one of them.
If we take time to consider all the little details & varieties in the created world God benevolently provides daily, it helps evoke thankfulness so that every care & anxiety is joyfully cast before our Father in heaven, so that, as in Philippians 4:
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And then, [as we experienced in the tranquility of Achamore gardens, a sort of 'Eden' for our day] the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4: 6-7 (NKJV)
Oddly enough, in the lyrics of Ian Dury’s song, “something nice to study” is another reason to be cheerful - which certainly could be appropriate when looking at creation.
Stay loyal, stay thankful, stay peaceful.
