This week I saw in the dawn with my wakeful seven-week old daughter. As she sat in her bouncy chair in our kitchen looking at me quite intensely, I saw in her face someone I rather recognised. It took several minutes (and I blame this on the fact that it was 4am) for me to realise that, lovely as my daughter is in many ways, her frown is identical to my own. Rather unsettled by seeing my own expression on my daughter’s face, I wondered what will be the other less desirable aspects of her inheritance.
In John 15, Jesus describes God as the ‘gardener’ who ‘cuts off every branch that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful.’
It seems to me that there is much in our world that could do with a good prune. My daughter might be stuck with my grumpy face forever but I sincerely hope that the first few years of her life, as we come out of the other side of the pandemic, will be a period of real change. I am sure that I am not alone in desiring that the government’s promise to ‘build back better’ to be more than just a slogan.
Frances Stratton
