St Johns with St Barnabas

August in our house this year is cat sitting month. Family and friends depart for their holidays, whilst ours is yet to come, hopefully in the slightly cooler weather. So, while they soak up the sunshine elsewhere, we water gardens, feed cats, tend tomato plants and try and guess what else is growing in the vegetable patch, and hope we can keep it alive.

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Mopsy dog is quite content with this arrangement. She has her cool shady spot in her own garden, and doesn’t seem to mind that we are not off on our adventures, well not yet anyway. She is happy to wait, and truthfully so are we.

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There’s something quite restful about August’s pause. The rush of early summer is behind us, the blackberries are ripening, and the courgettes have started multiplying when no one’s looking - I’m still not sure what to do with them all!!!

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The cats we are looking after (Willow, Jess and Gus), seem to suit the mood perfectly, self- contained and undemanding, requiring little more than food, a bit of fuss, and a watchful eye. Compared to the eager-to-please busyness of dogs who are always ready to go out for a walk, cats let us slow down. They remind us to sit still, to look out of the window – without barking at the postman or any other passer by - and to take a nap in the sun.

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As I’ve reflected upon this I found myself thinking about the fruits of the Spirit, those beautiful, slow-growing things Paul describes in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

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They don’t grow through noise and hurry. Like ripening fruit, they need time, warmth, and stillness. They don’t announce themselves. But they appear, almost unnoticed in lives that remain open to God.

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Maybe that’s what August is for. A time to pause, to notice small things growing, to be faithful in quiet tasks. A time not to strive, but to trust that the Spirit is still working, even in the stillness, even in the waiting.

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So whether you’re watering a garden, feeding someone’s cat, or just staying quietly put while others go away, remember: God is at work, grace is ripening.

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And in His timing, everything bears fruit. Of course, if you are going away on holiday ENJOY, our time will come.