The Saturday Message, with the Rev John Cree, of Immanuel Church, Feniscowles, Blackburn

WHEN I lived in West Africa I missed the British Springtime. In the tropics there are only two seasons. A long "dry season" and a shorter one which is the "wet season".

The four seasons so familiar to us in Britain did not take place.

In England we are used to the gradual progress of the year through natures varied seasons. We can therefore forget what a miracle is taking place before our eyes.

And amonst the many miracles that God has ordained for the natural order Spring is surely one of the loveliest. Suddenly out of what had seemed to be dead wood, life begins to emerge. From the ground which has lain fallow for months plants thrust their way into sunlight.

Even we humans seem to gain a new zest for life.

The traditional spring- clean may not happen in our homes in quite the same way that it used to, but we do begin to be active in a range of enterprises which only a few weeks ago would not have occurred to us.

We are fortunate in Lancashire to live in a particularly beautiful part of Britain. Even in our towns we are not denied the countryside.

We have parks within the borders of the towns and daffodils are often planted along the urban roadside.

And nowhere in Lancashire are we far from the countryside.

We are only ever a few minutes bus ride from the surrounding countryside.

Foot and mouth disease may have forced the closure of many paths through farms and fields, but it does not prevent us from looking at the countryside from the many country roads which criss-cross this fine county.

But it is too easy to simply accept the miracle of the seasons and the beauty of the countryside, without acknowledging the one who has created it.

In the busy rush of life, let us make sure we take time to reflect on the beauty which surrounds us. And as we do so let a short prayer be on our lips. "Thank you God, for the beautiful world you have gifted to us."