Thanking

 

Hello all. I hope that you are well. I am fine and almost fully recovered from Messy Church yesterday. I was on the table where the craft was edible (supposedly). It was certainly edible when it was put on the table. There were wraps and you could make a picnic lunch with ham, cheese, jam, chocolate spread and cucumber. In case you hadn't guessed, the story was about Jesus feeding the 5000. I'm not sure that the miracle would have attained such legendary status had the people on the mountainside had to eat some of the winning combinations served up by the children yesterday. Obviously, I have never tried jam and cucumber wrap before so I'm not really in a position to make a judgement. My trouble is that I am too set in my ways. Occasionally, I'll be honest, I get up early to do Messy, after a week of work, and I have to remember to not be weary in welldoing. Then, a littley finishes his cream cheese and biscoff wrap - with a sprinkling of chocolate smarties - and he absentmindedly rubs the back of my hand and says "Thanks miss" before wandering off to do the fishing game and I'm not sure where else I would get that kind of validation. And I'm glad that I made the effort.

Speaking of set in my ways, I have broken the habit of a lifetime and bought an early Easter egg that isn't even an egg! And what, you may ask has caused me to throw over a life of faith and old-time religion and not insist that any egg brought into this house must be (a) bought no earlier than 15 seconds before Easter Sunday (Scriptural I think you will find - probably) and (b) egg-shaped to remind us of the tomb of our Lord (if you screw your eyes up - also probably). Well, it is this thing you see above. It is the Marks and Spencer Custard Cream Egg. Arrrgh! I don't know if you have ever tried the M&S chocolate-covered custard creme (extra large) but they are disgusting. (By disgusting I mean completely delicious - if a little overwhelming). So when I saw that they had made an actual Easter Egg, HOH had to be sent to the big Marks up by the eye hospital to see if he could score any. (People at work had put orders in as well. I am an unashamed enabler). Do you know what else is disgusting? £12!!! Twelve of your English pounds. If I had anything decent in me, I would put it in the work charity raffle. I think you all know that I will not be doing that. I'm not proud of myself. 

Over the last couple of weeks, I have done something a bit dumb and signed up to produce a monthly blog for the Christian Writers Association. The blog has to be about writing from a Christian perspective rather than Christian thoughts and things if you get my drift. I hope that I haven't made a terrible mistake. I've read a lot of the other blogs and they seem to be by proper Christians - not to mention proper writers. I'm not on until the 21st so the Second Coming could happen in the meantime. 

Anyway, I have already done my blog and I mentioned that many years ago, someone had read something of mine and had taken the trouble to write and say thank you. (Someone I didn't know from Adam). It was one of the things that influenced them to become a Christian. Imagine that if you can. I understand if you find that difficult - reading this every week. I found the letter this week in a pile of old papers and wondered how she was. It was a long time ago. 

So I was wondering as well - about the feeding of the 5000. How many people came and said thank you. Miles away from anywhere. No food. Then, they get to eat their fill. There is no mention of any thank yous and Jesus has seemed quite keen on that in other places. One theory I suppose is that people had a guilty conscience because they had hidden their lunches because they knew that there wasn't enough to go around and then they were put to shame by a child. (A bit like me at Messy Church). We all have our moments I suppose - of behaving not so well when we are tired or scared or lack the vision to think everything just might be ok. Keeping on with a generosity of spirit helps a lot I think. I should try it more. (This doesn't mean I am putting my Custard Cream egg in the charity raffle. I bought them another one. Do not be ridiculous.)

Have a great week.