The First Shall Be Last?

Apparently, there is an old Japanese proverb, which relates an incident when everyone praised the peacock’s beautiful tail. Some of the other birds cried out “Sure, but look at its legs and listen to its voice!” When someone has a beautiful appearance or an...

Beware Falling Conkers

It is a few years now since I have been aware of local councils appearing to panic over the danger of falling conkers and placing warning signs on some trees. One school however did go so far as to cut down a chestnut tree because of the danger, and another was...

Now or Then

Apparently, Henry Ford said, “Say, what do I care about Napoleon? What do we care about what they did 500 or 1,000 years ago? It means nothing to me. History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the...

What Was Jesus’ Name Before It Was Jesus?

The angel that appeared to Joseph told him to name the child which Mary was expecting, Jesus, which means God with us. That was of course totally appropriate, for when he lived on earth he was fully divine as well as fully human. However, before he was born on earth...

Four ways of loving

In a recent skype conversation with Anna, one of my daughters in law, I mentioned that I was re-reading ‘The Four loves’ by C.S. Lewis which unpacks the meaning of the Greek words in a way that helpfully shows both the similarities and the differences between mere...

A journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step

The practical problem that many of us encounter when responding to God, is that we get discouraged because we do not see how we will manage some of the steps further along the journey, when we should be concentrating on taking the first steps, without which we will...

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