As I write this, we are firmly in the Autumn season: the autumn leaves are turning and the acorns are piling up underfoot. (Is it me, or do there seem to be a particularly large number of acorns this year?)

One of the great things about the UK is that we really do seasons, and after the parched summer, doesn’t autumn seem particularly welcome this year?

As well as the leaves and acorns, I have to confess that I have never grown out of enjoying conkers. How about you? I remember we used to collect them obsessively at school, even as teenagers, when I recall surreptitiously climbing into a garden next to the playground which had a massive horse chestnut tree, to try and get even more to put in our bag. I still find it very hard to walk past a horse chestnut tree with fallen conkers without stopping to see if there are any shiny ones to pick up or, even better, unopened cases waiting for my foot to release their treasure. Squashing those prickly cases to reveal a shiny new conker never fails to bring me joy! Don’t you just love the feel of a new conker – silky smooth and shiny, just perfect.

But the thing about conkers, is that smooth glossy look doesn’t last long. The pleasure they bring is very short-lived, for very quickly, shiny fades to dull, and the new conker joins the other hoards of yesterday’s conkers which really aren’t quite as entrancing, and off I go to find a new one. Yes – I’m conker fickle, always after the next new shiny perfect one!

I wonder how many other things in life are like that conker – promising much, but only providing temporary pleasure that fades quickly and needs to be replaced with something else.

But I wonder how many other things in life are like that conker – promising much, but only providing temporary pleasure that fades quickly and needs to be replaced with something else. And so, we fill our houses with lots of stuff we don’t need, because the thrill of the new thing fades too quickly. Perhaps you can identify with always looking for the next thing to bring you pleasure or that elusive ‘satisfaction’ that always seems to be promised by the next experience.

Or perhaps you struggle with finding that perfect Christmas gift for someone who seems to have everything – what is there ‘new’ that you can give to bring someone joy? Are we looking for things in the wrong place?

Jesus Christ said: I have come that they might have life, life in all its fullness. What a promise! What an invitation! Who wouldn’t want life in all its fullness? Perhaps as we approach Christmas and that moment when we remember God choosing to enter our world himself, as a human baby in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, perhaps you might like to investigate that claim for yourself. Could it be that there is something or someone who isn’t like that proverbial conker – shiny and perfect today but dull and disappointing tomorrow? You never know, it might be worth a look.

With every blessing
Rev’d Joanna Levasier

jo@burphamchurch.org.uk