Another minor prophet, and this time it’s Zephaniah. Zephaniah speaks of some scaty sounding justice and spme particularly beautiful hope. Unlike most of the minor prophets, though, I have a real fondness for this book..

I wrote about my children a lot, but I don’t share all that much about Nathan nowadays. But this book of the Bible takes me right back to the beginning of our relationship. Before it, even.

When we were just friends but clearly had feelings for each other, neither of us would say so. Looking back, I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because we both thought that relationships between ordinands were a silly idea. Which they are, really. Who wants to be part of a clergy couple?! Or who wants to form a relationship in a tight knit community and then face a tricky break up? Nobody.

But we really were drawn to each other. First as friends and then more. But there was this one night when I realised what a big gamble we could potentially take. Not just the clergy/ordinand couple stuff, but my heart. I’d been so hurt in the past and I wasn’t sure I could trust again, ordinand, clergy or anything else.

I felt myself panicking and I didn’t know what to do. I went to me room and calmed myself down enough to realise that it was Sunday in the morning and I really ought to practise my reading for church. I found the passage and read from Zephaniah 3. In my version it said ‘you will never fear disaster again’. To me, it spoke of Nathan. I believed than, as I believe now, that I don’t need to fear the kind of heartache I felt in my past. It was like a green light from God – it’s okay, you won’t be hurt like that again.

This is a lovely example of how we can read the Bible, but it also reads us, because it is a living, breathing gift from God.

Favourite verse: Zephaniah 3.15-17: ‘You shall never again fear evil…he will rejoice over you with singing’.

With thanks to JillWellington on Pixabay for the image.