CHANGEABLE would be a good description of the weather of late. My vegetables keep thinking that summer has arrived, only to find that the wet or cold or windy weather has returned. It is hard to plan; if I am going away do I pack T-shirts or jumpers? A day can start off cold and wet only to become warm and hazy by the time evening arrives; or hold great promise in the early hours before a lazy wind cuts through it in the afternoon and temperatures start to drop. This year more than ever we just cannot rely on the weather; it is changeable.

So the weather; so our lives. It might seem things are heading in one direction only to find things don't turn out quite the way we had expected. Within the space of days, or even of hours, the whole course of our lives can change. We did not know change was coming; things that we were certain of suddenly don't seem so possible.

It all makes for an interesting life and reminds me of the old adage, "What makes God laugh?"; answer: "Our plans...".

We can try to protect ourselves with money, insurance or isolation. We can anaesthetise ourselves with a whole cast of diversions. We can build castles to protect ourselves and live lives of risk aversion but that won't hold at bay the complexities of the world and the changes our lives face. Truth is that despite our best made plans, no matter how careful we are or how obsessive we can be, life is out of our control. Life, death, love, pain; of these we have little control. Our lives are changeable.

And it is not just the big stuff; the minor details of our lives make each day unpredictable and we do not really know where it will lead us.

Christians know they are loved by God and in all the uncertainty know Christ walks with them. We don't know what's coming but we can be sure that he is with us in it. Life, like the weather, is changeable; Christ is faithful.

The Rev David Macha

Priest-in-charge of Burnsall with Rylstone and rector of Linton