Take 5

  After many years I am back working with children on a Sunday morning. I had forgotten how "interesting” children can be, what they say, their take on the world and their reactions. They can be so funny and cute and challenging, all at the same time.   So here I am sitting on the floor with them hearing the Christmas story being retold and my mind drifted back to the last time I told the Christmas story to children.   It all began when I was asked to tell the story to Mainly Music children and parents. Little did I know the invitation would lead to a fresh revelation of God - a revelation that would be essential to anchor my soul during a storm that was about to break.   But I get ahead of my story.   I went looking for a Christmas story picture book that would be suitable for preschoolers. I had used children's stories from Lost Sheep website before so to Lost Sheep I went.   Downloaded "O Little Town Of Bethlehem" and thought this will work. Then...

  Weather bombs, storms, winds and floods have pounded countries, regions, cities and towns in recent months. There are more coming, we are told.   Climate change they say. Barely have we recovered from one storm and another is on its way. It may well be climate change, but these physical storms we are being assailed with are mirroring the emotional, relational and social storms we are trying to ride right now too.   We thought the two years of a pandemic were bad enough, but the post-pandemic storms are unrelenting. Emotional stress, social change, economic strain, war, violence in our communities, anxiety and fear continue to pound us. Poor mental health is centre stage for children, young people and adults. As wave after wave of “bad news” breaks over us, how can we survive? In January, as we were coming out of lockdown into the red traffic light setting, my daily Bible readings were in Mark 6.   Jesus had sent his disciples ahead of him in the boat but a stor...

  Shattering! We use the word so lightly but it is also the only word I can use to describe what I had seen. Like Humpty Dumpty falling off the wall, brokenness surrounded me -   broken pieces, broken hearts, broken people, and broken me.   How do you recover from heart-breaking trauma? How do you cope? How do you heal?   These were the questions I sat on the beach pondering. The beach and my bible, my go to places when life becomes overwhelming.   I read the story of Jesus healing the blind man with spit in Mark 8:22-26 and mentally pushed it aside. It didn’t appear to have any connection to my current pain but the comment in the accompanying devotional caught my attention: “This encounter reminds me that God is not in a rush. The intimacy the man shares with Jesus – the hand-in-hand journey, the level of touch and connection – would not have happened in a quicker, less-messy experience.” (1.)  I was pulled back into the story by the word "messy". Life l...