Think about what kind of mark you will leave behind
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Food for Thought column by Duncan Macleod
Although I was born and bred on the Isle of Lewis, most of my life since leaving school has been spent on the mainland in such diverse places as Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Helmsdale, Perth and for over nine years now in Dornoch.
Having taught briefly in North and South Uist, the only inhabited Outer Hebridean island I haven’t been to is Vatersay, but as far as the Inner Hebrides are concerned the only ones I’ve set foot on thus far are Skye, Raasay, Mull and Iona, so there’s still a long way to go before I can say I’ve been to them all.
Whether or not that day will ever come is known only to the One who alone holds the future in his hands.
Though nothing can compare with seeing them for ourselves, we can still glean a lot of knowledge of all our islands from the many books that have been and continue to be written about them. In recent years television programmes such as Grand Tours of the Scottish Islands, to name but one, have proved to be very popular and will no doubt have prompted many to go and visit them personally.
I read an article some time ago by a Church minister (so it must be true, though I’ve not been able to find any supporting evidence!) about one of the smaller of these islands called Canna. On approaching the island there are two things that strike any visitors who have never been there before.
Firstly, they will notice some fishing boats anchored just offshore. Nothing out of the ordinary about that of course, but as one draws nearer they will notice that the cliffs behind the pier – all 200 yards of them and about 60 feet high – are covered in different colours of paint. Coming nearer still the visitors discover the paint is in fact lettering.
The cliff face is covered with the names of fishing boats, their registration numbers, and the record of their home port – many of course from Scotland, but others from foreign countries such as France and Norway.
One traveller asking how the practice began, was told that the crew of some fishing-boat had once visited the island and before sailing wanted to leave some mark showing that they had called there. So, the crew, lowered by rope down the cliff face with paint-pot and brush in hand, had recorded their visit in that way. Many others then followed their example, each crew keen to leave its own mark behind, and so the cliff face at Canna is covered in paint.
Each one of us would do well to ponder what our legacy is because we too are leaving our mark behind us day by day. Not with a paint-pot and brush of course or on a cliff face but we do it in the minds of other people by what we say and do and by the way we behave.
If we claim to know Jesus as our Lord and Saviour we must take seriously the fact that he went about doing good and has left us an example that we might follow in his steps.
We are saved by faith alone in Christ alone, but that faith is never alone. We are to be living epistles known and read by all men. Jesus asks us to let our light shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our father who is in heaven.
How wonderful and God glorifying it would be if we left a mark like that wherever we go.
Duncan Macleod, a former Gaelic teacher, is the Free Church minister at Dornoch.
