Join in our Easter creation - say YES!

​Dear Friends,
Here we are, in the season of Lent, a time people think of ‘giving something up’. But haven’t we already given up so much over the last year?  The pandemic has said ‘NO’ to us all in many ways – lockdown, illness, hardship, bereavement. Perhaps like the psalmists, we lament...
But as we prepare for Good Friday, a dark day when all seems lost, don’t get stuck with ‘NO’. Jesus, made good his ‘YES’ to the purpose of his becoming human.  He gave up his life in order to give us life in all its fullness, to know our sins forgiven, to know a way to be in God’s presence. We just have to say ‘YES!’ and go on saying it in all circumstances.

Invitation to everyone to take part

We want to invite all of us to come together as the body of Christ to encourage each other by making a response to 2 Corinthians 1:20: For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘YES’ in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.   Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the YES of Jesus.  God affirms us, putting his YES within us.
How have we experienced God’s YES?  Many of us find a glimpse, an affirmation of God’s goodness in the beauty of his creation: the bulbs pushing up, the colours of the summer flowers, the autumn leaves, the sunsets and the snow! God’s YES in creation. We’ve also discovered the importance of community, small acts of kindness given and received: saying YES to Christ in us and in our neighbours.

What you can do
So we would like to invite everyone, young and old, whether you think you are creative or not, to send in pictures that show or represent your experiences of God’s YES and our Amen, which we hope to use in an Easter video. Send your pictures in to digital@christchurchware.co.uk in the coming weeks, and ideally before 30th March.
Here are some ideas to help get your started:

• Jess is preparing a Creation walk for the children to do, so you might want to capture elements of that as a family to make your ‘YES’ image by taking photos, collecting things along the way, or drawing something
• You could cut up magazines to make a collage that represents things that speak to you of God’s YES and send a photo of that
• You might take pictures of your flowers as they grow day by day to create a time lapse collection of images
• You might make a collage of letters making the words YES and Amen
• You might write out the verse graphically and highlight the YES and Amen
• You could create a digital graphic that represents your thoughts about God’s Promises being ‘YES’ in Jesus
• You might use household objects, your recycling, your garden, your street....
• Or you could come up with your own ideas!

May God fill you with his creative Spirit!  
John and the CCW Team.

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