I was not great at home economics. My scones were unusual shapes, my knitting not uniform tension, and my crosstitch was lamentable. My teacher was kind, but not best pleased with my efforts.

As I get older I realise the importance of these skills however. I have a warm coat I am enjoying wearing in this cold weather, but the lining has come adrift in one of the sleaves. Too often I am leaving some one’s house, and as I put my arm in the sleeve, it fails to come out the other side. I have to try to extracate myself, losing any dignity, and remember to try to sow it back together! If I had done this at the beginning, when the seam had just a small tear, it would have been so much better.

Am thinking about this a lot, that there is a time to mend, to mend tears, and things that are broken, and relationships that are strained or in difficulty. Sometimes if a word can be said in season, to correct a misunderstanding, to soothe a fractured communication, it can prevent things becoming worse. It doesn’t always achieve this of course, but at least offering it is a start. We are not responsible for the response of another person, just for our own behaviours.

I love the psalmist in psalm 51 verse 10 ‘ Create in me a pure heart, and renew a steadfast spirit within me’. We pray that God would give us a pure heart, show us any impurities, and ask that the holy spirit reveal to us any jealousies, bitterness or resentments, so we can let them go. If we approach life with a pure heart, then we can have a clear conscience that we have done everything in our power to live at peace with everyone, and that is enough.

Eternal God, You are good and true and lovely, and You have created this world as a splendid and dynamic vortex of colour and texture and sound, the heavens and the earth together. We praise You for all the creativity and life in this world, and we are so desolate at everything that blights and distorts and destroys, in creation, in relationships, in material things. Lord Jesus, the Great Physician, please bring healing and restoration to all that is marred and spoiled. Work through people willing to speak that word in season, negotiators, mediators, all of us. Holy Spirit, give us courage to take the first step to mend, to stitch together, to repair all that is torn, so that the broken may become whole, in Jesus name, Amen.