The Wonder of the Cross – 40 Days with the Music of Vicky Beeching
Day 11 – Monday after Lent 2 – Precious
To Read:
From the Scriptures:
They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
(Genesis 3v8-10)
From Vicky Beeching:
Precious
Precious are the moments
When I know that You are very near
Precious are these moments
As You meet me here
As You meet me here
Treasured are the moments
When I know that You are very near
Treasured are these moments
As You meet me here
As You meet me here
Here with You
Here with You
Your loving arms are holding me
Safe with You
Safe with You
There’s nowhere else I’d rather be
When it’s just you and me
So precious
So precious to me
To Listen:
To Reflect:
We are people who need to know our bearings. People for whom ‘place’, where we are when we do things, makes all the difference as to why and how we do them. Many of us will have places that carry special meaning. Places where significant events have happened, new journeys begun, old partnerships ended, or simply routine established. So many of our regular meetings only make sense when they are in the ‘usual place’, and, if they don’t happen there then something can be lost.
Place is important and precious but moments are also important precious. We may not be someone who need a ‘usual’ place to meet others but are more attuned to a usual time. The moment we do something, – sunrise, sunset, when the church bell chimes – becomes precious not the place. In our vicarage there is a continual ebb and flow between my wife being a ‘morning person’ and my being a ‘night owl’. We tend to be most present to each other over elevenses…
Our first parents had both a place, the Garden, and a moment, ‘at the time of the evening breeze’ to be close to the One Who Loves us Best. Everything should have been just hunky-dory but…
We may be people who have the best place and perfect timing in our journey home but no amount of prayed-in sacred space and no number of reminders to pray, will bring us closer to our Beloved if we do not intend, warts and all, to come closer.
To be present requires that we do not hide, naked or not. Perhaps it is when we are at our most naked, in our deepest failings that we need to cry these words;
Here with You
Here with You
Your loving arms are holding me
Safe with You
Safe with You
There’s nowhere else I’d rather be
I often wonder what would have happened if, instead of hiding in the bushes they, as did the younger son in Luke 15, had ‘come to their senses’ and ‘fessed up before being asked what they had been up to?
I love these moments, these Trysting Places, with Our Beloved. With Vicky (and Whitney – see below) I must learn to go there not only when I am in a good place but also when all I want to do is hide in the bushes.
Who knows, perhaps those moments, currently shrouded by shame, may become even more precious?
To Pray:
O Thou, who fillest heaven and earth,
ever acting, ever at rest,
who art present everywhere
and everywhere art wholly present,
who art not absent even when far off,
who with thy whole being fillest
yet transcendest all things,
who teachest the hearts of the faithful
without the din of words;
teach us,
we pray Thee,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Augustine of Hippo)
To Do:
Go to your ‘usual’ physical place of meeting with our Beloved and say, ‘thank you’. If you can give something – time to keep it clean, a gift to keep it open for others – do so.
Aim to go there more quickly when things go wrong
Going Further….
We all need to, especially when a bit broken, run towards love.
Take it away Whitney…
Oh, I need you here
I need you here to wipe away my tears
To kiss away my fears, no
If you only knew how much
I wanna run to you
Won’t you hold me in your arms
And keep me safe from harm?
oooOOOooo
If you would like to find out more about Vicky and her work here is a link to her Wikipedia entry. For a fuller picture her autobiography ‘Undivided’ is highly recommended
Please Note: These reflections are also published on my blog: suffolkvicarhomes.com on Bluesky as @suffolkvicar.bsky.social, and on my public Facebook page Suffolk Vicar – Rev Andrew Dotchin.
If you would like them as a daily email please send a request to revdotchin@gmail.com
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Acknowledgements:
These Reflections, ‘The Wonder of the Cross – 40 Days with the Music of Vicky Beaching’ are copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2026 and may be reproduced without charge on condition that their source is acknowledged.
All of the music on the video clips are from YouTube and are © Vicky Beeching.
If you enjoy listening to her songs please consider buying her recordings. A full discography and other information about Vicky can be found on her website vickybeeching.com.
Scripture quotations are from The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Prayers are from A Diary of Prayer compiled by Elizabeth Goudge and are copyright © 1966 The Estate of Elizabeth Goudge.
Suffolk Vicar 