Take 5

  So here I am at Christmas Wonderland being Santa’s little helper and taking photos of children and families with Santa.   Christmas songs are playing, heaps of families are lining up and I am having fun chatting to children, mums and dads, grandparents, a bunch of teenagers.    I turned to one boy, he’s maybe 7 or 8 years old, and asked him, “Are you ready to have your photo taken with Santa?” He looked at me as though I was crazy.   “No!” he declared loudly, “I haven’t come to have a photo with Santa, I came to find God!”   Stunned silence. His family gasped, then desperately tried to hide their laughter.   The young man was very serious.   “I am glad,” I say thinking very quickly on the spot, “you will find him in the next room with Mary and Joseph.” “Can I have a photo with him?” Whilst I joined his family laughing, this boy’s words stopped me in my tracks. I looked around the crowded scene.   I saw, I mean really saw, the people who c...

My eye caught a Christmas ornament and yes, it was in the reduced for quick sale section! And, yes, I bought it. The ornament a simple house shape to hold a tea candle has become my new favourite Christmas decoration. I have taken to lighting it in the early morning or late at night just to watch the glow of the candle inside the little house shining through the windows, and the roof. However, it is more than a pretty ornament. It has become a reminder to me that Jesus, the light of the world, the glory of heaven, stepped down into our darkness, born into an ordinary home, in an obscure village. Jesus, the light, came to live with us to be with us, “ to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace ,” to quote Zechariah’s song in Luke 1.78-79. Jesus’ coming not only lit up the sky with angels, it lit hope in those who would receive him into their life. Truly God with us, and here is the most wonderful mystery, God in us! Paul...

One of the most daunting things for a writer, or an artist is the blank piece of paper.   Its very blankness intimidates you and your mind goes into a swirling mass of “nothingness”.   I was working with a group of children recently, sharing with them about being an author and illustrator.   The children were then given a piece of paper, pencils and crayons to write or draw their own story.   For many children the blank piece of paper paralysed them and sent them into a panic.   They didn’t know where to begin. Others started and then stopped, asking me for a rubber to correct and tidy up their work. It wasn’t right, it was wrong, they needed lines to guide them – their perfectionism and angst preventing their work.   Their responses intrigued me, reminding me of my own “terror” of the blank piece of paper. Nothingness, chaos, confusion, or darkness do not intimidate God, however. In fact, God does his best work when faced with messy, chaos, empty and d...

Golden queen peaches in the fruit bowl caught my attention – the richness of their colour, their “furry” skins and oh, the taste!   Memories of bottling peaches, plums, apples, pears with my mother filled my mind – it was a late summer ritual in our house, involving visits to the orchards to purchase or pick the fruit, hours of peeling and slicing, and boiling to produce shelves full of colour, sunshine and deliciousness that would be devoured with pleasure in winter. Should you think it was just sweet summer fruit that was involved, no, it was also pickles, chutneys, relish, tomato sauce and spaghetti too.   My aunt went so far as as to preserve beans.   My mother drew a line at that one!   I could complain about child labour, but the family memories, the laughter, the fails, and the results meant that when I went flatting and discovered the rental had fruit trees, I too, as an adult, peeled, sliced, boiled and bottled to produce the same satisfying rows of fruit. A...

'You're in charge! You can do anything you want! You're ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes.' [Matt 6:9-13 - The Message] “I did answer Yes, ” wrote Dag Hammarskjold in his private journal, “Markings” on New Year's day 1953.   “ For all that has been – Thanks!  To all that shall be – Yes! ”   (a) Who was he saying yes to?   Yes to God and yes to whatever that commitment meant as he lived life and all the challenges that came his way. That life included a season of intense personal darkness from which emerged his first statement to say yes, and later into a very public role as the United Nations Secretary-General 1955-1961. It was a role that would require great courage as he negotiated peace in China, the Suez Crisis and in the Congo where he died in a plane crash. His journal revealed that each year, he said yes.   He lived “yes”.   A yes, that said, “Not I, but God in me.” When I first read this account of Dag Hammarskjold, I didn’t appreciate the depth o...