Wednesday 30 November 2016

So many good things in one day

Yesterday closed with some sadness over the loss of a life and today ends with nothing but joyful stuff to send me to sleep. The key is people and God I guess.

Cherry on the cake is battled for by year one and two children and an assembly on Christmas and people at the other end of the scale in a care home who were engaged and lucid (had a great conversation and went back into recent and distant past with clarity - them, not me!). Sprinkles came in the shape of a patronal service - I get such a buzz from doing the Eucharistic stuff and the opportunity, if it presents itself will never be passed up easily.

Those little godincidence moments in which we get the opportunity to make Jesus, the Christ, known; how amazing are they? To talk and find that the person is speaking Jesus and doesn't realise - sublime. To join the dots and see them see a picture emerging is priceless.

Sad bits came today when I remembered people who have been heroes of the faith and stumbled, revealing what was behind the image I was so inspired by. We all have feet of clay and all fall short of the glory of God, but to wilfully and actively seek that which is contrary to God's best for our lives - and in doing so cause others to fall too - that is just tragic. Musing over the person who came to faith in Christ and then managed to make it something so 'folk' through a lack of basic discipleship and their own, hard to overcome, life attitudes. What was done 'wrongly' when they became Christian and what lessons are to be learnt: It isn't about scalps or compliance, neither is it about filling the Church building. How do we help people to be released into something so much bigger than us and our narrow horizons so that they might flourish and grow in the fruits of the Spirit and the freedom that is in Christ?

But the smiles tonight have to be for the Nativity scene in the heads of small children: Mary, Joseph and Jesus, some angels and three kings and the three Chefs - what a great world it is when you're five and Christmas is coming!

Night Boss - more of the same tomorrow please -  love You.

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