The one who walks beside - Jesus Army Life

I'm trying to work out what I need to express. One of the emblems of our church is a swirl of colours, reds, yellows, greens and purples combined into a river of life.

The original wisdom behind this is a picture of many coloured candles which melted into one, fusing their lights into one beacon of hope - a sign of the unity God's love brings to his people.

This church is a people of life. You can feel it every time we get together. It's not about a set of individuals gathering with their small personal agendas, it's a positivity, a sense of relaxed togetherness. Sometimes you might think of people singing together around a camp fire, there's a beauty there, but that's not what I'm talking about - this is different, a renewed family, the ties here are strong, even though they might get stretched, even torn. It's about a pattern of life which doesn't just last for a moment, a sense that whoever we are, we all belong to the same organic root, we all drink of the same spirit-life and it has covenanted us together.

I write this because it's been a hard week and, as I sit at the church's music-cafe night, it's good to remember we are a beautiful people, for all our faults and ups and downs. I like the fact that we can stand by each other, even though life can seem like it's been ripped down the middle.

Things are never easy, we people certainly aren't simple. Somehow in all the craziness and complications God reaches through and comforts.