whipped cream

Making trifle for 150 people consigned me to the kitchens here for a fair length of time this morning.

Not that I mind at all! I like trifle and enjoy making it. It's just the quantities involved which make it take the time. It felt like I had half of the EU's food mountain stacked there on the work-tops. And the amount of cream to top the trifles off .. well, it looked like it could have plastered half the hall there was so much.

But I guess it'll all get eaten!

I had some help for some of the time. Which meant there was chat as well as a bit of company.

And the chat got us onto some pretty 'solid meat'! Not some idle chit-chat of a fairly 'milky' sort at all. But definitely 'solid meat'. As in discussing the work of the Spirit of God, the gift of tongues, and charismatic goings on. That sort of thing.

Good Monday morning, working-in-the-kitchen sort of chat!

It's striking how it's often in the context of our working at a task together these in-depth talks take place.

A bit like the cream, I was thinking later on. (There was gallons of the stuff, as I say, so there was ample time to think!)

The cream as it comes in the carton is liquid and runs where it will. But whisk the stuff, beat and beat the air all through the stuff, and soon (or not so soon, depending on the quantities - I was whisking three pints at a time) it starts to 'thicken': gains in volume.

I was thinking the chat in the kitchen today was really a bit like that. As if the pouring cream of friendly chat going back and forth soon somehow whipped in bit by bit the air of the Spirit of God.

And the chat got slowly weightier, filled out, expanded, until at length it really was just like the icing on the cake (or, more to the point, the cream on the top of the trifle!)

The heart of it all, as we chatted on, had to do, in effect, with the way that God's Spirit simply does not comply with the neat little boxes we make for him.

Are you only 'charismatic' if you do things in a certain way and speak in certain tones? Of course not! There isn't a need to pretend at all.

It's just a case of being ourselves. Being open to whatever it might be the Spirit chooses in his wisdom and his grace to do and give to each of us. Just the way we are.

Like cream. Being ready to be whisked about until the Holy Spirit fills us out, expands our hearts and minds, our whole experience. And sort of spreads us as the icing on God's cake, the rich whipped cream atop the satisfying trifle of God's message to the world.

I know, I know. The image that the Bible mostly uses to describe the word of God is bread. Not trifle. But you get the point! Let's not argue about trifles!

The more I thought along these lines, the more it crossed my mind that this whipping of the cream is not unlike what I spent the bulk of the rest of today involved in doing. Taking the cream of the Word of God and whisking it until it's simply filled throughout with the air of the Spirit of God. And ready then to be fed to the people on Sunday.

Commonly (and a lot more prosaically) called 'preparation'.

But that's what I'm doing when I'm preparing like that.

I mean, the Bible as the Word of God himself is nothing but the creme de la creme, the double cream that's all there in the carton.

Easily poured out. But it's the filled out, fluffed up, whisked and whipped variety we like. At least on top of a trifle!

And I was interested at night when the ceilidh came and the folk had had their fill of this cream-topped, special trifle - I was interested to hear the comments from so many folk that it's the custard and the cream on top they always so much like.

The ceilidh was great.

Worth all the effort involved in putting it on. The girls are simply great at that. They seem to do it all so effortlessly and make the whole hall look so good and make the evening run so well. And enjoy every moment themselves!

It's a blessing beyond all words having folk like that involved in the Lord's work here. They have an amazing ministry whose fruit it's hard to measure.

There were loads of folk at the ceilidh: I think we lost all count by the time it came. The youngest maybe three months old, the oldest well up in their nineties.

And from right across the spectrum of involvement in our life. Some who've been among us over years. Some whose only point of contact's been their pitching up for lunch. There was a girl like that, one of the young mums who meet each week for lunch - she brought her husband and her children and her parents too: and her brother, as well, thinking about it!

I mean everyone was there!

And it's always a huge big time of bonding for the folk who've only newly joined us and have hitherto not known that many folk. It's almost like a rite of initiation for them, I think. I think they sort of feel they belong after a night like that!

But again, I was thinking (I think quite a lot!) this ceilidh, too, is rather like the whipping of the cream. It's whisking the air of the Spirit into an ordinary group of folk. Giving to folk a fulness of life.

Maybe it's this that's really meant when we speak about 'whipping a people into shape'. (Actually, I don't think it refers to this at all: but it maybe should!). So working among a people that the air of the Spirit of God gets whisked into all of their life.

That's what I'm seeking day by day to do.

And sometimes, like tonight, when I get to taste the end result, it all seems more than worth it!

cathedrals

A couple with whom I'm friends gave me a book a few weeks back.

They thought I might enjoy it (though they did apologise in advance for one or two somewhat 'raunchy' bits in it: I said I'd simply close my eyes at those parts!).

And I have been. Enjoying it. It's a long book (over 1,000 pages), but it's an easy and compelling read, drawing me in to a different world from centuries ago.

It's about a master builder who's been dreaming all his life of building a cathedral. And ... well, I won't spoil the story (partly because I haven't reached the end myself!).

Saturdays are often good for getting a decent run at books. Reading a hundred, or even a couple of hundred, pages at a time. I've managed a bit of that today. And enjoyed the chance to press yet further on into the book.

For I, too, have dreams. Perhaps we all have dreams like that. I think our lives, in many ways, are ultimately for us all the great cathedral that we build. Or not so great, I guess. That's where the challenge lies. What sort of sacred building am I putting up as every year goes by?

It's not been all I've done today by any means, of course.

There have been the usual domestic chores, including a spell at the superstore. We've a ceilidh coming up here on this coming Monday night. Hogmanay. And that means lots of trifles for, who knows, perhaps a hundred folk or more.

So I thought I'd best stock up with the ingredients, in case it came to Monday and the shelves were bare - at least of what I'll need to make these trifles.

(I was careful this week to keep well clear of any 'boozy' boxes in my trolley!)

The place was pretty busy once again. The Saturday before Hogmanay, it always is. But it made me think of how it used to be with the local grocer's shop.

It was always a sort of meeting place. A place where people stopped and talked and shared their news and everyone chipped in. I met all sorts of folk! And it was good to have the chance to stop and chat. Because most times in these superstores, everyone's in a rush.

But not today! It was back to being the good old days, when shopping was a part of community life.

A bit like the ceilidh we'll hold on Monday night. A chance to slow the pace of life and gather with your friends and talk and laugh and simply have that time with one another.

I guess that's one of the striking things a cathedral always has. Space. The building's always spacious.

And I guess that's why I want, in building the cathedral of my life, to build it in a way that means there is that sort of space and restful 'spaciousness'.

sailing

Rarely do my days work out quite like I planned.

Another way of saying that life is full of surprises, I guess. Which means it's never boring, of course!

Not that I mind. It just means I'm always working hard at flexibility. Adjusting my plans on the spot. Learning to live in step with the Lord.

I used to be a pretty 'regimented' sort of guy. I'd like to have things organised and hated interruptions to my plans. That kind of threw everything.

Now I see it all as part of the dance of life. Part of the great adventure of being out on the seas of God's purposes and powered by the wind of God's Spirit.

'You don't know where it's going', Jesus once said. And most of the time I don't. I don't know where the Spirit will be leading me through any day. I take it as it comes.

I'm glad to be sailing! A whole new way of life.

Anyway, my plans for today had centred on my setting aside the morning for some concentrated time with God. Preparing the message for each of Sunday's services.

The last Sunday in the year. I sensed the Lord had something of significance to say. Well, he always does, of course. I don't mean it like that! But something on this Sunday which would sort of set the seal on all this past year's held. That sort of thing.

My best laid plans got well and truly 'ganged astray' (to mangle the noted poet!).

So much for a morning of preparation. I got a call quite early on from someone I'd anticipated seeing next week. But that wasn't going to work and so it ended up being this morning.

It was good to have the chance to chat things through. About the future, I guess. God's future here. Talking sometimes clarifies. 'Iron sharpens iron', as the writer of the Proverbs used to say.

And this was one of those times. My mind being gently sharpened. The way ahead becoming just that little bit more clear.

By the time we were done and I'd seen another friend who'd called about a different sort of matter .. well, there wasn't any morning left!

The day just turned entirely upside down. A helpful reminder that that's the way God works. He turns things upside down (or right way up, more properly!).

Jesus was absolutely right. I don't know where it's going half the time. But he does. And I guess that's all that matters!

And by the time the day was done I'd found myself excited by the word the Lord was giving for this coming Sunday night.

It's often not the route I'd planned, but he gets me there in the end of the day!

junk food

There isn't really any kind of spiritual equivalent of 'junk food'.

Quick meals, pre-packaged, ten minutes max in the microwave - and there you are. A meal (of sorts) on the table in next to no time at all.

Pasta that tastes like the maker confused it with plastic and sauces which look like they'd suit an artist's palette better than your own. But, hey, it's a meal and it's quick and it's there on your plate in a moment!

The food which nourishes the soul simply doesn't come like that. There just isn't an equivalent.

It needs time to be prepared. That's one of the problems there always is through 'Christmas' week - the week that follows Christmas Day on through to New Year's Day.

Like this year, you wake up the morning after Christmas Day and already Sunday's getting pretty near. There isn't really time to laze about. It doesn't really do to take a break and leave the preparation for a day or two. It all becomes too rushed.

God's Word refuses to be packaged as a junk food sort of thing.

So I have to give it time. And time is what I've tried to give the task today. Without being rushed. Without being always pressurised by knowing that the clock is ticking down and there isn't all that long before the 'food' is to be served.

I was glad of the time through the first part of the day. An undistracted morning (in the main) and the chance to sit and listen to the Lord and in the sort of quietness there is to hear just what he's seeking to be saying to us all. And then to build from there.

A start was made, at any rate. The afternoon and evening were already spoken for - family commitments, with folk to say goodbye to and be taken to the airport for their flight and folk to see and spend time with. That sort of thing.

The days can be short in every sense, this time of year!

And 'long' as well, because it's often pretty late before I get to bed!

But Christmas time or not, God's people need the sustenance of 'food', the food which he alone, by speaking through his word, can really give.

And so, no matter that there are these times of relaxation with both family and friends, there's still the need to find the time (and make the time) to listen to the Lord, prepare the 'food' that others will be looking for and needing all the time.

A meal and not just 'snacks'.

'gratitude' day

Today, traditionally (at least it is for me), is about writing 'thank you' letters.

I know it's called Boxing Day. And I know why it's called that. But for myself it's a kind of 'thank you' day.

If I don't start to write these letters now, chances are they'll not get written at all! I like to say the 'thank you's while the gratitude is fresh and isn't something forced.

So for long enough today's the day I always try and do that sort of thing. My Mum's was the first I'd usually write.

A chance to put on paper what can easily go unsaid. Thank you. Not just for the gifts that she'd given. But for all that she'd been and all that she'd done and all that she'd given through life.

Today, of course, there hasn't been that letter. Another little void to add to all the others that there are this time of year. The gratitude is there as much as ever. But there isn't any more the chance to put it down on paper and say it in that way. I miss that today. And I miss her just not being around.

And yet, for her I'm more than glad. She made our Christmas special from our youngest years. And the memories which stretch right back to the dawning of my life, those memories are all such rich and happy ones. And so I'm glad for her that now she's got the biggest, truest Christmas of them all: the one to which the rich and happy memories all have pointed down the years.

I couldn't wish for any better gift for her to have!

Along with the letters and cards I've been catching up a bit on other things. This time of year all sorts of things have through these past few weeks got put aside meanwhile. It always happens. It's just a simple matter of priorities being juggled just a bit to fit in all the extra things the Christmas season brings.

And, of course, the horizon on which this coming Sunday stands is drawing rather near again! I'm trying to give some thought to that as well.

So I was down at the halls the bulk of the morning. Playing catch-up. And saying 'thank you', too, of course.

And yes .. 'thank you' to the Lord himself. I'm conscious of the daily grace afforded me whereby he has enabled me for all the added chances there have been to share with different people just how good the good news is!

This afternoon's been more about a 'clean up' than a catch-up! The kitchen more than an office.

Sorting through the dietary debris that's left when Christmas Day is done. Left-overs. That sort of thing. And how to turn them all and use them all for meals and menus coming days will bring. More people. Family and friends. Celebration time.

A rather different sort of preparation! Feeding hungry stomachs (well, maybe not that 'hungry': 'receptive' and expectant more like!), rather than that feeding of the soul.

Important nonetheless! Christ's presence at the table is an under-rated thing! Meal-times are occasions when we're meant to know the friendship and the banter of the Lord as well as all the fun and food and friendship round the table which we share with other people at such times as this.

Having him so present in our lives .. it's that for which I'm truly very thankful day by day.

light, water and Christmas

The folk here meant a huge amount to Mum in the latter years of her life.

And so, as an expression of our gratitude to God for all that they have been we gifted a 'water feature' the the church. A fairly sizeable fountain with an integrated light.

Except they didn't send the light when they sent the rest! Which didn't exactly help.

But the light arrived today. And John, our kind of resident electrician, was quick to come round and fix the whole thing up. It looks terrific, especially in the dark.

And it somehow seemed most fitting that it should have been today the part arrived, with Christmas Day tomorrow.

The birth of Jesus. The one who is the water of life and the light of the world.

What better symbol of the heart of all Mum's living. And what better time to get it up and working than in the darkness of these winter days when everyone is full of celebration.

It's like, as folk go up to share an act of worship - it's like they're being reminded of the reason for it all. The Light has come into the world. And the sort of living water which alone can truly satisfy the soul is now dispensed by him.

I'm glad it was working today. Although I'm bound to say it made me miss Mum just that wee bit more than I'd expected that I would. And yet, it's maybe for that reason that I'm glad that it was there.

Like a beacon of hope. A message she was sending still, beyond her death. A message she'll be sending down who knows how many years to come.

The light of the world and the water of life. Jesus.

So I'm glad of the chance to celebrate with others here this Christmas Eve. And most of the day's been spent in trying to learn from God the message that he meant to speak to these three groups of worshippers who'd gather here - two tonight and one tomorrow morning.

The service at 6 is always fun. A short half hour for absolutely every age and stage! Some under one and one old lady who's soon to be a hundred and one. And pretty much everything in between!

For loads of folk this service is the one time in the year that they're at any sort of worship thing at all. So I'm keen that they hear what it's all about and why we're so enthused about the guy. But I'm keen as well that there is a real experience of God.

The joy and peace and warmth and love and goodness of our God. The brightness and the colour, the adventure and the fun. A sense of what they're maybe mainly missing in their lives. A taste of what they're deep down maybe longing for as well.

The light of the world and the water of life. I want to give them that. Always.

not what it appears!

Appearances can be deceptive!

At least, I was thinking that this morning when I did the weekly shopping at the superstore. My trolley was quite laden with whole boxes full of cider, beer and wine.

All of which is really rather difficult to hide!

And sure enough, sod's law sort of thing, although there are some days you scarecely meet a soul you know, today I seemed to meet them all! Mind you, the last Saturday morning before Christmas Day, that's hardly surprising, I suppose!

I almost wished I had some sort of sign to say - 'Please, sir, it's not for me!'

Which is true. It's not for me at all! Except that sounds a pretty lame excuse. They all say that!

So it got me thinking how much appearances can be so deceptive.

And how much there is that element embedded in the Christmas narrative.

A young girl in her teenage years getting pregnant and the poor girl not yet married to her man. It doesn't look too clever! But appearances can be so deceptive.

A child being born in a shed reserved for animals and sleeping in a cattle trough. It doesn't look too promising at all - the sort of child you might as well ignore! But, again, appearances can be so deceptive.

And men from the east, not sure of the way, not smart enough to have got their AA route map in advance, and popping a pretty odd question. That also doesn't look too clever!

But appearances can be so deceptive.

It's those with ears to hear that end up not just hearing, but finally getting what it is this Jesus guy is always harping on about.

And it's those with eyes to see that end up seeing clearly what is actually going on.

The bottles of booze don't mean that I'm a drinker. Any more than a birth in a barn meant Jesus was a good-for-nothing baby from an out-of-wedlock union.

Appearances can be deceptive! He's the King who's come. And one way or another I will celebrate!

the end of the road

Try making six fit into five. It doesn't go!

And that, I guess, in terms of mathematics, is pretty much the sum of my week.

Yesterday was spent away from here, interring my Mum's ashes at what used to be her home for many years, at Southend in Argyll.

It was a good day. A long day. A very special day. A long day. And, of course, a hard day, too, in lots of different ways.

Southend itself is really the end of the road. Which is, I think, appropriate! Because this was, indeed, the end of the road for Mum. At least in terms of her earthly life.

A final sort of 'resting place' for that little wooden casket with her dust-like earthly remains. And a final sort of pilgrimage of grief for all of us as well.

Not easy. A cold and wintry day to match the mood of such a time as that. And always in the shadow of the little mound which down the years has always overlooked the little cemetery there and on which, centuries ago, the ancient saint Columba is reputed to have stood and preached the good news of the risen Jesus Christ.

I always feel it's like his resonating tones still echo down the centuries and bathe our lives, our hearts, our grief with all the solace and the comfort of the message which he brought.

So it was good to be there. And fitting in its way that yesterday was also Mum's own birthday. It gave the whole occasion just a lovely sense of 'roundedness'. As of the Lord himself who had brought her into life so long ago, now gently closed that rich and well-lived life and neatly wrapped it up.

Meanwhile!

The result, of course, is the '6-into-5-doesn't-go' scenario! The need to try and make up time with all else that is going on. I took another early start and was up and off at 6am to try and get ahead. Well ... try and catch up more like!

I was over to share the sort of 'Singalong' the Primary School was having on this last day of the term. I'd said to the Primary 5s the other day that I'd try and get along and hear the song that they had been rehearsing.

It was good. A fun way to end the term, with all the school being gathered there like that. And all the lovely music with its focus on the birth of God's own Son. I was glad that I'd gone, for all that it meant the time was squeezed just that bit more.

And the bulk of the rest of the day's been spent pretty much in the 'book'. Listening in to what the Lord is meaning to be saying when we gather in a couple of days' time. And preparing the powerpoint slides with it being a 'family' service that we're holding this coming Sunday morning.

With all the children in throughout, the whole thing needs to be both short and fast and visual. And that means more than a little work!

But these are exciting days. Important ones. There is that sense about these present times. And even though this week's been fairly rushed, that much is coming through.

The end of the term for the children at the school. The end of the road for my Mum in this earthly life. And the end of the year coming up for us all.

The end of a chapter with another one waiting to start.

Is that where we're at as a people these days? Is that where we're at in society now? Is that what the Lord is seeking to say?

it's good to talk

It's been great to have time with the schools again today.

The last of the three assemblies over at the Royal High in the morning first thing. It's a different set of pupils every day. And a different talk as well. Related to Christmas (obviously) but a seasonal word of challenge which I hope makes some sense in their lives.

I spoke today about the journeys that the people in the Christmas story made. And asked the question as to just how far we too are willing to go. In healing broken relationships. In helping other people. In heartening older people at this season of the year.

It's a delicate sort of balance between being too overtly Christian and being pretty wishy-washy.

Not easy. But I'm glad of the chance that I have to speak with the pupils there.

The primary school had their service here straight after that. So it felt a bit like shuttling back and forth between the schools. Again there was the chance to speak. The Head is good that way. And it's a chance, of course, to share a bit of what the Christmas message is about.

And how it still applies to each of us.

The children were great with their singing again. And we just about coped with the last minute sort of juggling which we had to do with all the varied bits of techno input that there were.

The Head and the deputy both came in and had a cup of coffee for a while. It's good to have the chance like that to sit and simply chat in the easy, warm, relaxed environment we have. I think they value such moments as well.

Another service at lunch - the last of the lunchtime services till the Christmas season's past. And a further chance to teach, apply and help folk see what Christmas is about.

I guess it's this that people mean when when they say 'this must be your busy time of year!'

Er ... it's always busy!

But I guess the thing about this time of year is simply the amount of different chances that there are to speak and teach and share the thrilling message of the birth of God's own Son. Giving, giving, giving - at least in terms of speaking in that 'formal' sort of way.

But I love it. And there's always so much to say as well! So I don't really think of it as 'busy' in that way at all.

Today we included the sacrament as part of the half-hour service which we had. That's a new departure and it took a bit of jugglng things around. Fitting in the praise and prayer and Bible teaching portions that there always are and adding in a whole new sacramental part as well!

It seemed to work OK. We weren't hugely over time or anything. And I think in the main folk were glad of the chance to tie the birth of Jesus to his death like that. I've been doing it already this week at the school, of course, so it wasn't a problem for me!

I had some time in the afternoon discussing with a fellow leader here the things we'll have to do in terms of preparing 'starter' papers for the meeting of the leaders that we'll have in January next year (which makes it sound a good deal further off than it actually is!).

And at night there was the chance to pop our Christmas cards into the homes of folk who live up in the streets behind our own.

I've got to know the different folk a bit across these past few years. It's a good chance to have some further contact with them once again.

These gentle, early points of fleeting contact can gradually develop into something like relationship. And the from that relationship, relationship with God himself can sometimes grow.

drunk

It's busy, I know, at this time of year, but I do love the build up up to Christmas!

Another long day (Christmas candles are there to be burned!) with an early 6am start. I thouoght I'd get on with preparing the soups - it being our special, festive week and all!

A good, thick, mouth-watering Scotch Broth (for the traditionalists!) and a large pan of Red Plum Tomato Soup. Not Plum Tomato Soup which happens to be red, but Tomato Soup made with stewed red plums.

Novel, perhaps! But good. And suitably festive, I thought. I mean, we have 'plum pudding' at this time of year, so why not 'plum soup'.

(OK, I don't want to know your answer to that!)

I like to make it special, and Christmas week especially so.

So I got that done before I was off to the secondary school for half past eight. The next in the series of first thing in the morning year group assemblies.

This time S2 and 3. A bit more rowdy than the 5s and 6s had been yesterday. But then, I guess, we're one day further nearer the big one and spirits run higher by the moment!

The Rector seemed more than content with what I had to say (I don't know about the pupils!) and that at least is something. Although ostensibly my talk's directed to the pupils, the staff are there as well and ... well, who knows just what's being taken in by whom?

Later on it was back to the Primary School for the last of the four long sessions with the Primary 6s there. Jesus - his story.

This time on his death. What a great time we had! They were full of all sorts of questions - some of them focussed on the blood, the gore and the pain: but some of them, too, quite probing and perceptive in their way.

I love it when the children are like that. Full of questions. Wanting to know. Eager to get the picture. As I say, I thought it all was great. And I think they got the picture just a bit.

And their teachers, too. They seemed appreciative. And stressed, in winding things all up, that now the children would be better placed to understand what Christmas was actually all about.

I was sad to finish off these sessions with the Primary 6s. They've been good. But I was invited back - which I took as a positive sign!

And even as I was leaving, walking along the corridor, I passed the P5 classroom and the teacher invited me in. They were having a practice singing class for the service here tomorrow. And they wanted me to hear how good they were!

It was like they felt that I belonged to them, was one of them, a part of all they're doing through this year. It was humbling to feel the welcome that they gave.

And, yes, they were good all right. Great singing, but lovely smiles as they sang as well. And I thought what joy the Lord himself must have in such a simple pleasure in the praising of his name.

Then they went on and sang me a carol in German. A foreign language and harmonised as well. I think they're just amazing! A lovely group of children. With so much to give. Such wonderful potential for the living of their lives.

Please God, I pray, so work in all their lives they do not ever lose that vibrant, huge potential for a whole long life well lived.

I'd have loved to have stayed and they'd gladly have had me there. But I had to get back and get the custard on for all the Christmas pies there are on offer here this week. It's a tradition this, my being the local custard-maker for these things.

Strange how the wonder of Christmas is built around traditions that just grow. It's sort of giving people memories which will stick with them for ever and remind them of the goodness of our God in Jesus Christ. So I guess we work at these simple, small 'traditions'.

Plus, I love custard!

It was good to catch up with Douglas at lunch. I haven't seen him for a while, the way that things have worked out.

He was thrilled to bits to have had his thesis newly printed out. He must have been working on the thing for almost six years I think. It feels like that at any rate. And must seem like eternity for him! The good things in life area worth waiting for.

The chance to stop and pray is always good as well. A time of prayer with him in the early afternoon. As we'd had a time of prayer, as staff, before I'd headed off to school much earlier on this morning.

Good to be able to bring each other's needs before the Lord. Good to be able to pray that God himself would be at work in all that's going on.

"Every day is different. And I never know from one day to another just what the day will bring."

Not my words. But the words of the lady I saw up at the funeral undertakers in the afternoon when collecting the casket with my mother's ashes in. With the interment of her ashes coming up on Thursday of this week, I figured I should probably go and collect them!

But that was what the lady there was saying. I haven't ever met her face to face before. We simply sort of know each other's voice across the phone.

In some ways it's a bit like us and Christ. We hear and know and recognise his voice. But one day we will get to see the Lord face to face. I suspect that'll be a surprise! It isn't hard to put a face to any voice we hear. It's just hard getting the face correct!

I didn't imagine the lady like that at all! And I don't suppose that any sort of pictures that I've had of Jesus are ever going to be remotely like the real thing!

And yet all the time I guess that what I'm trying to do in life is helping people form a sort of picture of the Lord. Strange.

I'm painting pictures day by day to try and help folk see just what the Lord is like. That's what we were doing at night in a way. Carol singing with the young folk from our Sunday evening group. Up town, starting from The Lot and moving on from there.

And coming back as well (they kindly gave us steaming hot chocolate afterwards, which we were more than ready for! The night was freezing cold!).

I thought it was great the way these young folk are so ready to participate in something of that sort. They've good voices too. Most of them anyway. And they made it fun.

We were collecting for a Trust which serves the homeless in the city here (Bethany Christian Trust) and were given some money by some of the passing traffic. Pedestrian traffic, that is.

Being a freezing cold night, and a Tuesday to boot, there weren't that many people on the streets. Except the smokers, obliged to smoke their cigarettes outside the pubs and restaurants.

We were either a welcome relief to the biting cold for them, or they were a captive audience! Some of them were really very generous indeed.

I think there must be some sort of graph which shows that the drunker they were the more generous they were as well! (Though I guess there'll be a cut off point at some point in the level of inebriation!).

Generosity comes with hearts that are 'drunk' on the wonder and beauty in all of the love that the Lord gives.

Which is back to the children at school. The P5 classes singing their Christmas songs. Giving it all. Faces alive and smiles so broad. 'Drunk', in a way, on the wonder and excitement of this Christmas time. And thus generous, too.

In their case with their voices and their lively, lovely laughter and their smiles. That's got to be the way to live! 'Drunk' on the wine of the Spirit of God. 'Drunk' on the water of life!

burning the Christmas candles

It looks like being a long week!

Or a short week, depending how you view it!

Long because the days are going to get stretched both ends I suspect. Short because I'm going to wonder how to fit everything that needs to be done into the time available.

But it's a great time of year and I do just love the buzz and the activity and all that's going on. I don't mind weeks like this at all.

Anyway, I thought I'd make a good prompt start today. There are deadlines to meet at the early end of the week. Like the final session with the Primary 6s tomorrow and the Christmas service that the school is holding here the following day.

Both needing quite a lot of concentrated preparation.

And a talk at the local secondary school today, tomorrow and Wednesday first thing as well.

So I was up and down at the halls by 6am. Freezing cold to start with, about -7 degrees. But once the sun began it's climb into the morning sky (a good deal later on, I have to say!), the gentle orange glow was absolutely stunning. I'll take the cold for the sight of glory such as that!

The school assemblies at the Royal High at this time of year are always a bit of a lottery. There's so much else going on in the school. But they're good and I like being there and enjoy the chance to share some thoughts with the pupils who are there.

Today it was the 5th and 6th years and they listened well - and even gave me a round of applause at the end. The season of good will and all that!

Preparation for the P6 classes took the first part of the morning. By then I'd got the bulk of what I'd hoped to do all done. Powerpoint prepared. Sheets for every child prepared and printed and folded. Ready for the grand finale.

It's on the death of Jesus, this final session with the P6 children. Which seems a bit odd in many ways. To be focussed on Easter at Christmas time. And yet it's a helpful reminder that the two belong together.

We had a staff meeting up town through the latter part of the morning. Actually it was an extended coffee with the leaders of the Reception Area team in a smart establishment up town! But it sounds better to call it a 'staff meeting'.

I mean, it was that in a way, as well. There were some matters of business which we needed to discuss. But we did so in a pleasant 'Christmas' sort of way!

It was good, though, to be able in that small way to say a huge big thank you to these girls who do such an amazing job week by week. And to have a fun, relaxing time of chat as well.

There were things to be attended to back here at the halls, of course. There always are! Like the delivery of the water feature we'd ordered as a gift in memory of my Mum.

It was exciting to see that arrive (it's still to be set up - but at least it's here!). Not that this is really the weather for a fountain: any self-respecting water is going to freeze on sight! But, as I say, it's here - and it'll look good once it's installed and running.

The guy who installed our AV system, he was here as well to deal with one or two small problems that we've had. And I also had to pop in to see one of the nurses across at the surgery.

So, things to do before I even got down to anything else, preparation-wise. And there was a bit of that to do as well.

But in amongst it all, in the few brief moments when I was over across at the surgery, my brother turned up on the off chance that I might be here! Then left, because I wasn't! Strange how life turns out like that.

The times our paths just miss. I mean in general terms. And then the times our paths just wonderfully cross! The providence of God in all our different circumstances day by day

It's good to be aware of his being there. Of his being always in control. Sometimes it's all a non-stop round of different opportunities. Different needs. Different sorts of crises.

Sometimes the pace is hectic. Other times the pace is so much slower. Well, a bit slower, sometimes!

These days are days of opportunity. And so the pace is quick. Fitting things in, squeezing them into all the smallest corners of my time.

I had a call in the afternoon in relation to a child in hospital. A call to go and pray with her and with her parents at her side.

So I did that early evening and though it made me later than I'd planned for the meeting I was going to, it was right to go and good to be able to pray with the three of them there.

And yes, it made me late for that meeting. But, well, life's just like that sometimes, and I never wear a watch because I purposefully refuse to have my life determined by the ticking of the clock.

The meeting itself was helpful and good and I think we made progress again. Another chance to meet and think through all the issues that there are about The Lot, this place up town where something of significance is going on.

And after that I wasn't absolutely done! There was still some further preparation to be done.

At least it's Christmas and there are loads of candles around. Since I'm burning a few these days. At both ends!

communication

When the children's Christmas parties are being held, well you know that Christmas now is getting near!

The parties were held this afternoon and I was down at the halls for the bulk of the time.

Mainly on the technical side. Preparing to have the songs and story pictures projected onto the wall.

It took me a good deal longer than I'd planned. Mainly because for long enough I simply couldn't get the computer and the projector to 'communicate'! I mean, it's bad enough with people, but when you have machines behaving badly, well...!

Of course, it wasn't their fault! In the end, all it required was a simple couple of buttons getting pressed and - bang! - communication problems all resolved!

If only life were as simple as that! What a difference it makes when people are enabled to communicate. And what problems arise when they don't.

As the time wore on and all my best efforts seemed destined to prove all in vain, we started praying hard that whatever was the problem would be speedily resolved! And, as I say, it was.

A guy walked in - the guy that I've been seeing with his wife these past few months - and I asked him for his help. 'How about this?' he volunteered. A couple of keys pressed down. And there it was. Answered prayer! Wonderful.

I thought it was appropriate that it was he who'd sorted it. The times I've spent with him and with his wife have all been geared to helping them 'communicate' with God. Sometimes it just in a couple of moments all clicks into place. I think it's been a bit like that for them!

A whole community of people gathered there this afternoon was thereby helped. It wouldn't have been even half the time it was without the two machines being able to 'communicate' like that.

I think it's like that when there is that real communication link between a person and the Lord. A whole community of people are enriched.

So I'm hoping that was something of a 'sign'! A sign that over these next days there'll be many who are put in touch with God and find that he is speaking to their hearts.

Apart from that little minor sort of difficulty, of course, the parties themselves were great! As always.

extravagance

Following on my chat with Liz yesterday afternoon I came across a video today.

It isn't all that long, but it puts quite well the sort of feelings which I have about the way we spend so much on one another at this time of year.

Such terrible extravagance. I don't mean that there's anything really wrong with the extravagance itself. It's just the way that it's directed. That's the terrible thing.

We spend these massive sums on one another. When elsewhere there are just so many millions who have barely even anything at all.

It's that the video highlights in a simple almost soporific way. Making you sort of wonder what on earth it's all about. And pointing up how easy it can be to miss the mark and miss the point and get the whole thing wrong.

'Get real!' - that's how it ends! Take a look yourself. It's worth the few brief minutes of your time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFW15m_CXo8

You should be able to access it by following the link above

I was thinking about 'extravagance' today.

Not just in terms of how we spend such large amounts of money on the gifts we buy for people who're already pretty well-to-do. But the 'extravagance' of God.

Christmas, I suppose, in many ways. The sometimes almost reckless, wholly lavish generosity of God in what is given us in Jesus.

The bulk of the day I was giving some thought to what it is the Lord intends to say to us as we gather once again this coming Sunday. And that was the burden of all he was saying.

It almost brought me to tears at times. Reflecting on this radical extravagance of God. Meeting us all in our need. Giving us all that he's got. Holding absolutely nothing back at all.

Though he was rich, yet he became poor, that by that very poverty he might make us, the likes of me, he might make us so rich.

I think when you see it and feel it for all that it is ... well, you just want to go out and live like that yourself. At least I do!

involved

We were praying for one of the men here when we had a time of prayer on Tuesday morning. Today he's in the hospital.

Almost as if the Lord himself invites us to be John the Baptist figures through our praying: preparing the way for the Lord to do his work.

It's felt like that. Not so much surprise, as though our prayers had simply not been heard at all: but more a sense of our being given notice in advance that this man would be needing God's great healing hand upon his life.

The Lord does nothing without revealing it first to his servants the prophets. That's how the text of Amos goes (or something like that - I'm quoting it from memory: Amos 3.7, I'm pretty sure).

He involves us in the work he's going to do. Intimates his purposes before he starts to bring them all to pass. Lets us be a part of it.

It's really quite a privilege when you stop and think on it.

That's how it's been at the school, of course. His gentle intimation back in June. And now, as each week passes by, it seems as if there's always that bit more which he is purposing to do.

I was in at the school again today. A brief and hurried 'H & G' to the teachers at their break. Then on across to the nursery for the children's nativity there.

They're doing it every day this week, I think. A brief ten minute singing with the drama of the birth of Jesus acted out by different pre-school children every day. And a select group of parents to watch.

I think I was one of five today and each of them thrilled with their child. No wonder! The children were just brilliant. Enjoying every moment of the thing and entering into everything with enthusiastic joy.

And it crossed my mind again how much they learn through singing and through their acting out the part. Their getting on the inside of the story and being part of it themselves.

And somehow what we do with all the children at an early stage of life, we have to learn to replicate again in adult life. Get them into the story. Help them feel the thrill of being a part of it.

Not just mere spectators. But participants. Involved.

It's striking the way the Lord just draws folk in and almost while they're not aware of it at all involves them in the story of his work.

The doctors and nurses were over for lunch again today. I had some time with Liz, the Practice Manager. Chatting through the service that there'd been and talking through the issue of a fee.

A fee?! I think she found it hard to figure out just why I was so adamant there was no fee at all. I insisted on that. It's a huge, big, genuine privilege to share with folk in times of grief like that. And I said if they as a family had found any sort of comfort from it all then that was more than recompense so far as I'm concerned.

But Liz can be insistent, too! And so I said why not use one of these 'alternative gifts'. The sort of gift whereby the gift could be directed to myself in name, but actually be received, enjoyed and used by someone else in greater need.

I think she liked the notion. It's a great idea! And I went round later on to give a note to her of where such gifts are accessed on the internet. I said to let me know just what it was that she was going to do - and I'd add on an extra bit myself. A token of my own respects, as it were.

There was also a chance to chat with one of the nurses. I need my ears syringed again, so I fixed up an appointment and in chatting on a bit with her it seems her sister's married to a good friend of my brother.

"Is your brother a missionary?" she asked. Which rather threw me, since I don't really think of him quite like that. "Well, yes," I said, "I suppose he is: we're all of us missionaries if you put it in those terms!" I meant all of us here and all of us following Christ.

And it seemed to me again how good the Lord has always been in making these 'connections': all sorts of little lines that draw folk gently in to share the life his people live and find in time the source of all that life in simply knowing Jesus for themselves.

So another good day! And the evening was good as well. A meeting of The Hub, the group of local leaders here who're trying to figure out the way ahead.

One of the things we're conscious of is the need to ensure involvement on the part of all the people here. Like the children in the nursery's brief nativity.

Involved. Inside the story and part of it.

patterns

I once read a book which tried to explain why, when you've waited long for a bus to come, three of them come at once.

It obviously made a big impression on me since I can't remember what the reason was. Or is. Or whether it made much sense.

What explains the patterns that there are in life? That's what I'm left asking at the end of today.

What explains the fact that when I get back home and turn on the light, a bulb then goes and blows the fuse, and I go to the kitchen, turn on the mixer and the flex goes up in flames?

What explains a day like that? Co-incidence? Or something more?

And is it just co-incidence that the person who was due to be speaking at our lunchtime service today failed to make an appearance? Which left me with a couple of minutes' notice before being required to do it myself.

Is it just that there are days like that? Not that I minded being called upon like that. The service all went well and the Lord was very present and he gave me in an instant just exactly what he wanted me to say.

I actually quite like the adventure involved! A sort of 'brinksmanship' in a way, I suppose. A sort of 'high-risk sport' in the world of ecclesiastical activity. It's called faith, I guess. Trusting God for everything and finding that he's faithful all the time.

The way we're meant to live.

But what about the fuse being blown, the mixer's flex going up in flames? Is that just some co-incidence?

And here's another thing about today. I was conducting another funeral this afternoon. (That's part of the reason why I was glad to have someone else lined up to speak at the lunchtime service). And among the many people at the funeral was one of the local doctors from the surgery here.

It's back to the business of buses again! How come they come in pairs like that?

Yesterday I'd had the contact with the family of the local Practice Manager. Today it was one of the doctors.

I mean, that's been maybe fifteen years the surgery's been there. And not a single time in fifteen years can I recall there being a service I've conducted where a person from the practice has been there.

Then two in two days!

I can't believe it's coincidence! As the girl in the film 'Sleepless in Seattle' says - 'it must be a sign!'

Well, it looks and feels like that to me, I have to say. A sign of what God's doing in these days. A sign of the way he uses the links that we've had with the folk across there.

As if he says - 'yesterday was no coincidence!'

The service today along at the crem was pretty well attended. The Lord had given me the word to speak, I was clear in my mind on that. So I spoke the word and I leave it to him how those words will impact all the different people who were there.

The man who'd died was a fine, distinguished person in a lot of ways. Well-known throughout the world-wide 'Burns' community.

That was a passion he'd had since he'd been at school.

Which shows the sort of impact that a teacher sometimes has - though I don't suppose the teacher who'd imparted that great passion in Tom's heart would ever know just how great was the influence he had. (I think it was a 'he'!)

I think God's pretty wise like that. He doesn't let us see the ways our lives are used by him to impact other people in his world. It would go to our heads, I guess. And leave us not so usable again.

But there seemed to be something going on at the service today. God speaking. That sort of something.

The man was also big on vintage cars. Again well-known across the land.

It's strange how some can sort of drift through life without a single thing that's grabbed their hearts. And others have these passions. Things they've really poured their time and strength into pursuing.

I think it's just indicative of how we're made. There's something in us all which needs to have a passion of that sort. I guess it's the way we've been made. 'In the image of God'.

It's a passion for God which lurks in all of our hearts. A passion for the poetry in his every word. A passion for the journeys of adventure which he longs that we might share.

At least, I recognise that he himself is very much the passion in my heart. The beauty of all words, because he is himself 'the word'. The wonder and the thrill of daily taking up the offer of adventure in the 'vintage car' of genuine discipleship of Christ.

Simply following Jesus. As the wise men went on their travels and boldly followed the star.

I was reminded of that as well again this morning in at the school. The Primary 1s and Primary 2s put on a lovely nativity.

The school did it all really well. Tables set out in the hall with coffee and goodies at hand. Simple, but colourful programmes.

And the children were out of this world! Amazing. How the teachers manage such a thing, I simply do not know. The whole thing was really terrific. Moving in its own way, too.

And, yes, I guess there was a lot of moving in the narrative! Mary and Joseph travelling. The shepherds going down from the hills. The wise men journeying countless miles.

An older sort of version of the buses coming in threes! A pattern of movement again. And certainly no coincidence!

Something was going on of real and deep significance. And I think it's little different here these days.