Grains of Sand

PIxabay Perhaps it was because yesterday was such an extremely windy day here in southern Ontario, that these lines from As You Like It repeated themselves over and over in my head all day: Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind as man's ingratitude... I confess I don't remember even studying Shakespeare's play in which these words appear, but the lines are engraved in my brain nonetheless. I wonder if Jesus ever felt what William tried hard to express? He lived among an ungrateful people. Their ingratitude was, at least in part, why He had come to dwell among men in the first place. As the sinless Lamb of God, sin repelled Him. But it also drew Him toward sinners so that He could deal with that sin and restore fellowship between His Father and all of us who had rejected His loving favour to follow other gods. But those to whom Jesus came rejected Him as well. Despite that He tells His disciples in Luke 6: "... Love your enemies, do good t...

Pixabay I've lost count of how many times I have told this story—most recently last week at a Seniors' Residence! But here goes once again. Years ago, as Director of Christian Education, in the days when that role for me involved kids, we did a lot of Christmas programs. On this particular Christmas the play was called Three Wise Men and A Baby . In one scene the shepherds (three boys from the Junior Department of the Sunday School) were to be sitting around their fire just minding their own business and talking their long, boring evening away as they watched their sheep. The angel who was to appear to them, was a tall, skinny Jamaican kid. You can imagine what he looked like in his white robes and gold tinsel halo. He was to enter from the choir loft door, above the platform where the shepherds were seated. When the angel appeared he was to introduce himself with the words, " Fear not! " and the shepherds were then to scream in fright! That was exactly what h...

Google Images “We interrupt this program to bring you....” Don’t you just hate it when someone butts in on your your favourite TV series or sports event to tell you something you probably didn’t really want to know? The crowds following Jesus had their own agendas as the Lord and His disciples were leaving Jericho one day (Matthew 20:29). Hearing the hubbub, two blind men sitting by the side of the road, somehow discovered that the Healer they had heard so much about was passing right by them. It was an opportunity that they could not afford to miss. So they started to yell in the hopes that their voices would be heard over the crowd. But the crowd had its own agenda and didn’t want its “program” interrupted. The people tried to shush the blind men up. “ The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!’ ” (20:31). Of course, Jesus heard them and responded to their needs. As I read this story I wondered about h...