Defenseless Flower

"Dada" teaching the first lesson of the day. We're using an idea we used in Brazil with the kids in the church there, going through the Bible, story by story, with a page for each story, which will be bound into their own Bible story book at the end. The idea is that they get the whole story of the Bible into their hearts and heads, from God creating the world to making it all wonderful again. For the Bible is, above all else, a story (with a happy ending), not a rulebook or a religious manual.

I think a lot of Christian weirdnesses come from taking bits of the text, and forgetting the whole story, something coming home to me again in reading Educated, by Tara Westover. Her Dad actually reminds me a lot of mine; mine wasn't quite as strange, and he wasn't mentally ill, but there are a lot of similarities.

Today, the story was about Rahab, the courageous and resourceful "heathen" prostitute, who became an ancestor of Jesus - along with four other women of doubtful reputation (see Matthew chapter one). Five stories right there that should give hope to any of us.

Gratefuls:
- the Bible, a "defenseless flower", as Carlos Mesters put it
- identifying more trees, especially the beautifully delicate white poplars, in Rectory Park, and seeing a few treecreepers on Paul's "secret walk"
- the utter privilege of spending these days/months sharing wonder with our grandchildren

Oh, and thanks so much for all the positive responses to Graham's write-up of our daughter's wedding on the Community Blog.