The love that flowed and flowed and...

These last few days have been very interesting indeed...

Went to a wedding last Saturday (16th) and Love God was  - almost literally - tangible. Not content with just being something going on between the two lovely people getting married, Love was visible in all of the guests, the church was filled with it. I have been to many weddings in my lifetime, and I have to say that this one really stuck out for the way that everyone seemed genuinely pleased, excited and 'there' for the very happy couple. (And, refreshingly, not a whiff of falsity or forcédness at all.) I felt truly ^uplifted by the whole service, and did have a chuckle* when the groom admitted that he had forgotten the rings completely, so rings were exchanged at the cake fight cake and champagne reception afterwards. Just goes to show that sextagenarians get just as nervous and dizzy as the younger generations. *Did I say chuckle? CoRRection: oh how we laughed! (Sorry Mr & Mrs W.)

Copyright: The Loris
 taken in April 2010, at Portman Ravine

The sense of overwhelming Love continued on through the evening, when The Mother and The Loris went to watch a glorious sunset up at Southbourne Beach. Sunsets are just one of the things that remind me of the greatness of God's Creation. It's all so beautiful and makes me understand my place in the bigger creation picture. The sky on Saturday evening was so stunning, the sky was huge, the clouds plentiful, the colours so intense and yet the camera on my phone did not really do it justice. Sadly, my old phone does not want to talk to my computer, so the (possibly lacking in impact) pictures will have to stay there, so I've added one from April, take a bit further west down the coast, as Boscombe :(

Sunday's Love then spilled over into Monday. In fact, it's still washing around me a full week on... It's fabulous. An appointment with a dizzy doctor last Tuesday left me quite bemused, but on a higher dose of The Happy Pills and instructions to fill out a headache diary and to go back in one month. Blarg!

On Wednesday, the DMoDs caught me unaware and dragged my heart through the floor, shredding it as they went, while others set about j^Um_piN^g on my brain and I barely managed to feed myself a ready-made roll (thank God for mothers) before nearly throwing up. I was not amused and so didn't make it back to the EastSide, until last Thursday. Barney and Dave were most upset as I'd shut them up in my bag, but forgot to let them out to play with the New Puppy at The Mother's house.

The New Puppy arrived in a shopping bag from Sainsbury's nasty killer of local businesses. The Mother claims she only glanced at the fluffy toys in the kiddies' aisle, but when we got home, the little pup stuck its nose out and tried to eat the bread. It was a very good day, because it seemed that The Mother finally understood that, (a) toys are real and (b) being childlike in one's approach to life is much better for one's health - even though she did try to hide all the boys behind the sofa cushions...

See, people think I am strange because I love such elementary things, but to be honest, it's the only way to be.  The Cheese quite likes those with a child's heart... See: Matthew 18:1-4 spells it out...

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 Well, OK, some might think that I take this verse a little too much to heart, but The Jesus has a great sense of humour and it really is OK you know.  I am so grateful for the non-stuffy Christians that I am surrounded by. There is a vast gulf between sober, mature, yet childlike wonder, awe and excitement about one's faltering steps along The Way and the sober,  mature, yet slightly imperious or disdainful and prideful march of many of the more conservative Christians I have met over the years. I am happy to be thought of as slightly anarchic in my regard to 'traditional church', but I do not denounce its teachings. Not a bit. (Well, except for the nonsensical prosperity gospel that twists the truth and keeps the poor down, homeless and hungry. But that's a disgusting heresy born straight out of the union of the father of lies with this revolting age of tawdry excess and moral pusillanimity).

I have a very good friend, PD, who is a vicar in a very tough parish in the Northwest of England. He often calls me a foaming-at-the-mouth fundy (fundamentalist), and I regularly call him a Pharisee. The truth is that we are able to have diametrically opposed points of view within the same faith, not because bickering is the only thing that Christians do (contrary to tabloid belief), but because we are held in the arms of a God that has no need to fear our witterings and doubtings. Neither can we outwit him nor can we outmanoeuvre him. He is omnipotent and omnipresent. Nothing we say can harm him - only ourselves (when we are wrong). The beauty of loving the one True God is that He bestows so much grace upon us daily that most of the time we are totally unaware of his action in our lives.

So, this non-fundamentalist here, is assisting her friend in a project, precisely because she sees one part of the same picture at a ǝןƃuɐ ʇuǝɹǝɟɟıp ʎןʇɥƃıןs. A fresh perspective is not the same as a direct threat or a step over the mark into heresy. I mean, after all, as a Jewish Rabbi, Jesus had a responsibility to teach his disciples to adhere to all the strict laws as set out in the Hebrew Tanakh (Torah, Nevi'im, Kittiim). But as he didn't conform to their opinion on what 'religion' really is ( and neither should we - see Romans 12:1), one could say that in the eyes of his contemporaries, Jesus was a heretic, but he was really teaching us all to......................................quest?on and to be  non-conformist Whoesoevers...

So, if you are thinking that Christianity is a dirty word, a fouled up religion and something that you would want to steer clear of, then I would say that you could be forgiven for believing the media hype. However, be none too quick to judge, one really ought to remember that Christians (of any brand) are first and foremost human, and therefore liable to f**k it up at some point. I'm not abnegating the whole of Christendom of her responsibility to seek to live as Christ taught us to, but it is not an easy walk, and we are prone to stumbling, grazing our knees at the very least, or - as is my wont -  gashing our faces open  upon the rocks and rubble littering the pathway through the valley of the shadow of death.

Some days I wish that I could just give it all up. But then I remember that Jesus loves us and died for us (Jn 3:16).

For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life...

... and I am one of the 'whosoevers' in that verse...

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