Church of St Mary, Whitbeck

The Church of St Mary at Whitbeck, Cumbria sits in the shadow of Black Combe. Sadly, it was all locked up, but the day was sunny and the views superb. Being nosey, I walked around the closed building and peered in through the windows, which providence had seen fit to install at ground level using clear glass. I was delighted to behold a medieval arch dividing nave from chancel. Close examination was denied, so it could be of a later date, but a slight roughness to the stonework and imprecision of the intrados persuaded me that it dated to the 1300s or early 1400s. Treasure indeed! An old feature surrounded by later masonry, recent paint and modern plaster.

A church building might be newly built, but the heart of its message is older than time itself. The gospel or good news of Jesus Christ was not hastily concocted nine months before the Saviour’s incarnation, not planned as a knee jerk reaction after the fall of Adam, but it was carefully planned in the mists of eternity. This is why the Lord Jesus is described as the lamb “slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8). The buildings might be recent, the preacher fresh faced, the music ‘contemporary’, but the heart of the matter, the crux of the issue, is ancient indeed.

I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. Psalm 77:5

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