Lindisfarne, Holy Island

We started our first evening with a conversation about the “Two Books” and what they meant for us. The first book is creation which God created and deemed good. The second is scripture. Our week is to be spent reading the two books – truly seeing and seeking to see God in nature and to use what we see to reflect upon our spiritual lives and how we are shaped by our experiences.

Our first daytime adventure was to go and look at the geology of Holy Island, to see what was there, how internal forces changed the shape of the Island. Most of the rock underlying Holy Island was sedimentary, so we saw the limestone, filled with fossils of early marine creatures, and varying in colour from grey to black.

Marble/limestone with fossils


Limestone with fossils
But dolerite, (known in Northumberland as ‘whinstone’) forced its way up in molten stage, and so we have the breaking of the flat, horizontal planes with the thrusting dolerite. Part of the heat and pressure changed the limestone to a marble/limestone mix – and you can see in the photo the meeting of the planes.


The vertical rock is dolerite, met at its base by the limestone/marble mix through which it forced its way.

It’s enough of a marvel on its own but it is also a metaphor for us and for our lives. Often our lives are smooth and level, until something, not necessarily of our own choosing or making, forces its way up and through them, changing the shape and texture of them, leaving them transformed for all time. Like the limestone, we don’t have the choosing of life’s events. Unlike the limestone, we do have the choosing of how we will respond, of how we will take the changed circumstances and use them or be used by them.

Another aspect here is the cliffs that are made of shale - weak rock that crumbles easily. It too was shaped as the glacier flowed over it, forcing it into curving shapes as the glacier moved relentlessly on.

So we are encouraged to reflect on our lives, what their composition is and what impact life’s events have had on them. What has transformed us? How has it transformed us? How have we responded in the past? How do we choose to respond today? How will we prepare ourselves to be better equipped to deal with the unknown challenges that may lie in our future? Where do we find our strength?
That’s my reflection for right now. Recognising the shaping influences, looking for positive influences, identifying jagged or distorted places which need healing, or battered and worn places into which we need the gentle, renewing and energising life of God.

As Graham pointed out, we can’t control life’s events, but we can choose whether we will invite God to use those events to make us better or allow them to make us bitter.

The reference for our reflections began with Isaiah 51:1-2 “Look to (remember) the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn .... “ which was an invitation to look to our own history, and how we were formed...