I’m a rubbish photographer, but once in a blue moon I take a picture that I want to look at again. Here is a handful of them – and I’m posting them here mostly so I can find them!
Last year’s floods:
A truly spectacular tree against a spectacularly blue sky.
Some sky, of various colours:
A leaf, seemingly suspended in mid-air.
It was probably on a spider’s web.
And then an actual spiders’ web, with dew on it.
To play this game you will need:
Here’s how to play:
When you’ve chosen your play area, draw a symbol, letter, number or other simple picture on each paving stone. Symbols we have used include:
Take it in turns to shout out a move, indicating what kind of image the participants need to jump to next. Some moves we have done include:
This is a really fun game, and it can last as long as you want! The summer rain will wash the pictures off every so often so you can draw a new play area next time.
Here’s a little something that the kids and I wrote while we were driving home from Messy Church this afternoon (we’d been making percussion instruments, so it was noisy church as well as messy church!). You have to imagine singing it to Queen’s “We will, we will rock you!”
We will, we will praise you!
We will, we will praise you!
Father, we praise you ‘cause you made all things,
The flowers and the mountains and the bird that sings,
We’ve got a smile on our face,
And hearts full of grace,
And we’ll tell of your glory all over the place:
We will, we will praise you!
We will, we will praise you!
Jesus, you came to us to show the way,
You healed the sick and taught us how to pray,
We praise you because
You died on the cross,
Then rose again to show the devil who’s boss:
We will, we will praise you!
We will, we will praise you!
Holy Spirit, you’re the breath of God,
Encouraging us to share his love abroad.
You bring us alive
And give us power to believe,
Bringing God closer than the air we breathe:
We will, we will praise you!
We will, we will praise you!
This site takes Word-clouds to a whole new level. I’ve always found them beautiful, but this is the first time I’ve seen the whole Bible presented in this way. Well worth a look. http://www.66clouds.com/index.html
With thanks to @fibrefairy, some thoughts on the Feast of the Presentation, which we’re celebrating a day late at St Mary’s…
The Candlemas story is a story of contrasts, and opposites.
It’s clearly part of the Christmas story – Jesus is still a baby (despite us having spent the season of Epiphany jumping around the early part of Jesus’ adult ministry) and this is the day that Mary and Joseph bring their son to Jerusalem, to the Temple itself, so present him to God, as the law required.
But this story is also an early chapter in the Passion story. Already when the Magi visited, they brought hints of Jesus’ future in the form of Myrrh – not only used for healing but also in embalming – a portent of Jesus’ death.
Birth and death – Candlemas is a story of contrasts.
But that’s not the only contrast.
Jesus is presented in the Temple, the very centre and emblem of Jewish identity and faith. It is a reminder that Jesus was born, lived and died as a Jew. And yet the words of Simeon speak not only of the glory of God’s chosen people, but also of a light for all the nations – all the nations.
So this is a story of God’s people, but it’s absolutely about all people. It’s about having roots that run so deep that we can grow branches that stretch far and wide.
Birth and death, inward looking and outward, deep and broad. Contrasts and opposites, yes, but this is a story that draws them together, and there is one more way in which this story draws contrasts together:
The characters in this story come from three generations: the child, the parents, and the elderly, and this one event brings all three together. Can this be a model for us? For the possibility of unity between the generations? In a story with such momentous contrasts being drawn together, this drawing together of the generations may seem to be a small thing, but for our own time when so many people are separated from their extended families, and technological and social changes take place increasingly quickly, real understanding and closeness between different generations is by no means an assumption.
Making such unity a reality requires that all generations learn to acknowledge both the past and the future, to face the hope of life and the certainty of death and to draw from their roots to grow branches that spread wide and encompass more than we ever thought would be comfortable. When we do all this, we are witnesses to that fact that, against all the odds, there really can be peace between heaven and earth, and that what seems irreconcilable can be brought together.
reverendally.org 