Grains of Sand

Google Images Inside out. There are some pieces of clothing that come with the instructions to turn the garments inside out before they are to be washed. The Pharisees and teachers of the law of Jesus’ day needed to be turned inside out. Sometimes, so do we. That act would reveal our true selves as opposed to what we might show to the public. Jesus, who knew exactly what was going on inside His critics, didn’t mince words when He addressed the issues. “ Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on t...

A few weeks ago I posted an article about people I had met. Several of you commented that you wanted to know more, particularly about the young woman who is constantly walking around the block in the area of the church where I work. She has Down's Syndrome and I wondered why she was always out on the street. Yesterday, as I was heading to church, I saw her out walking and took the time to slow down to her pace and talk to her a little. It turns out that she does 14 laps of the neighbourhood in the morning and another 14 laps in the afternoon because she is trying to lose weight. I discovered where she lived (having observed her in her yard with her parents the day before while I was heading downtown). Her well-worn path through the neighbourhood has made her a fixture that you can set your watch by. She never deviates from her path. This little episode fit very well into my readings from Jeremiah yesterday. One particular verse jumped out from the page. " This is what the ...

Psalm 25-27 I thought it was kids playing in the hallway, you know, Sunday afternoon visits to granny's apartment where there is no room for kids to do anything. I found out later that night what was really going on outside my apartment door. It seems that my neighbour down the hall decided to remove an old easy chair that had wintered on his balcony. Just as he got it out of the apartment and into the hall, a pigeon flew out of the chair. Apparently the bird had found a nice warm place to nest. The hoopla in the hallway was caused by the neighbours trying to catch the pigeon and return it to a safer environment. In the midst of all this they discovered that the pigeon had two little "pigeon-citos" that were also resting inside the old chair. It was quite a circus from the sounds of it. I really should have gone out. I assumed one thing, and not wanting to seem like a complaining neighbour I didn't stick my head out the door to find out what the real story was beh...