January 2026
Now, when Christmas is over, we can look forward to Spring. Everyone can recognise a Snowdrop. In January I start looking for these pretty little flowers. One poet once said, “The first flower of the year, the delicate snowdrop is a stepping stone from winter to spring. Snowdrops are as tough as old boots but as delicate as a butterfly in a tornado.” We have only a small patch of them in our garden and I have waited for many years to see if they increase but no luck. At least the few we have appear every year.
We all know Barnardos as a children’s charity. When Thomas Barnardo went to London for missionary training, a young ten year old child showed him a rooftop where eleven homeless boys were sleeping. Barnardo was moved with compassion and set out to find temporary lodgings for them. Other midnight tours revealed as many as 73 in one night. He decided China would have to wait; God had given him London. He sold 3 hundred thousand copies of the scriptures in pubs and market places to raise money. He then opened numerous homes and villages that cared for some 60,000 children. He became known as ‘the father of nobody’s children’.
As we move into another year, many people will be glad to say goodbye to 2025, as they have suffered in many ways, not only personally, but with so many disasters and war zones. However, a young minister gave an address to Sunday School children where he listed certain articles which bear a striking similarity to Christianity – such as the life boat, the fire alarm, the telephone, the ambulance and sticking-plaster.
“Why?” he asked the children.
“Very simple,” he explained. “They’re all there when we want them; everyday things but things to console us and help us, as we welcome another New Year.”
Marie Cove.