Reflection for August 2025
Keep Jesus in the Centre, because He Is the Centre
I grew up in Kingswood and lived in a street called Southey Avenue. As a child, I heard the story about Goldilocks and the three bears. What I didn’t know until recently, was that a man called Robert Southey wrote Goldilocks & the Three Bears in 1837, when it was known as The Three Bears.
Southey's story is about an old woman who enters the house of three bachelor bears during their absence. She eats their food, breaks a chair, and sleeps in a bed. She runs away when discovered. In time, the three bachelor bears became Daddy, Mummy, and Baby Bear. The old woman became a little girl called Goldilocks.
The street I grew up in was named after the author of Goldie Locks & the Three Bears! That started me thinking as to why our Church is called Emmaus Church Centre. Luke 24:13:25 tells of The Road to Emmaus where Jesus appeared to two disciples. This makes perfect sense as to why a church would be named after this story, as our church is where we come to meet with Jesus.
The word emmaus means a ‘hot-spring’ or ‘warm bath’ useful for healing!
A church is a building where Christians worship, but can also refer to a Christian community or a specific Christian denomination. The term can also refer to the physical structure, a specific congregation, or the Christian church in a wider sense.
The centre of something means the middle, the nucleus, the heart, the core, the focal point. The point from which an activity or process is directed, or on which it is focused.
This reminded me of the song "Be the Centre” and I thought of it like a prayer asking for Jesus to be the centre of everything in our lives.
Jesus, be the centre, be my source, be my light, Jesus.
Jesus, be the centre, be my hope, be my song, Jesus.
Be the fire in my heart, be the wind in these sails.
Be the reason that I live Jesus, Jesus.
Jesus, be my vision, be my path, be my guide, Jesus.
Whatever your plans for this summer, and whatever is happening in your life -
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Matthew 6:33
And keep Jesus at the Centre of your lives.
God bless,
Val Martyn