A revelation!

I have definitely read Big Sky before - but can't remember the outcome so it's fine.

Last night in Zac's we had a great time. There were only ten of us and we had a talking stick aka Sean's glasses case. Each person who wanted had an opportunity to say something about the past year or the future year. People were very honest and open and it was lovely. 

At the end Bryan, who was part of Zac's before it began, i.e. when it was a coffee bar in another church, but who hasn't been a regular at bible study until fairly recently, gave me a belated birthday/thank you present. 

It was wrapped up like this:

Now because he's a bit of  tease I was suspicious opening it. I thought it looked like a blackboard duster - he used to work in a school - and it was for me to threaten to throw at people who were noisy in bible study! Yes, I know physical violence is never the answer but it was the right sort of shape and size for an eraser. 

It turned out to be a much nicer gift.

He'd made me a name plaque. How lovely is that?

When I'd held the talking stick I'd said, amongst other things, that although I knew God loved me I wanted to KNOW God loved me. In response Sean said that knowing the love of God wasn't a fuzzy feeling but that often God showed his love for us through the actions of other people. So Bryan's gift meant even more in the light of that.

One of the little boys I visited yesterday had also made me a beautiful Christmas card. Very special.

* * * * *

So it was back to normal in Zac's this morning making chilli and chicken curry for rough sleepers. While chopping veg I was thinking about a conversation I'd had in which I'd said something along the lines of hearing what we want to hear. That made me a think of a Simon and Garfunkel song - which now escapes me* - and that led me to try and remember which station Paul Simon was sitting on when he wrote Homeward Bound (can't recall**) and from there I began singing Scarborough Fair.

And it was then I had a revelation. 

It isn't "Tell her to bring me a jar of good jam"; it's "tell her to buy me an acre of land."

All these years . . . 

* "Still a man hears what he wants to hear, And disregards the rest" from The Boxer.

** Widnes in Cheshire.