The shadow of death

I have been reflecting on this painting, 'The Shadow of Death' by Holman Hunt today.  As Jesus stretches his arms the evening light casts a shadow against the back wall and the tools hung on the back wall form a cross bar.  Although we do not see the woman's face we know that it is Mary who is opening a chest full of the gifts brought by the Magi at Jesus' birth.  But she is not looking in the box her eyes are stuck by the shadow that seems to be predicting what is to come.  

The painting  holds much more but I will leave you to ponder the significance of it in your own time... it's much more fun that way!

Holding hands with God

As the rain hides the stars,

as the autumn mist hides the hills,

as the clouds veil the blue of the sky,

so the dark happenings of my lot

hide the shining of thy face from me.

Yet, if I may hold thy hand in the darkness,

it is enough. Since I know that,

though I may stumble in my going,

thou dost not fall.

(Celtic, unknown)

This prayer was posted by Living Wittily recently http://livingwittily.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/02/  

I like the idea of holding hands with God as I stumble in the dark.

Why do bad things happen?

It has been some time since my last blog.  There are two reasons for this.  Firstly, I have developed a repetative strain in my hand/wrist that is painful when I type.  Secondly, I have struggled to find any hilarity in my life worthy of mention.


I guess there may be a problem with the name of my blog 'Spirituality and hilarity.'  Sometimes life is just not funny.  In a previous blog I refered to the tragic death of Daz, one of my husband's close friends.  Why do bad things happen?  The technical term for this is 'theodicy' and whilst I could get very academic in defining what it means it is not my intention to do so.  there are plenty of academic blogs available if that is what you are looking for.  My intention is more to provoke thought and to explore spirituality.  'So God, why do bad things happen?'  I intend on asking this question of him upstairs when I eventually get to heaven.  I am not looking to getting there any time soon so this question will have to wait a while.  I the meantime it is a question that remains in my thoughts.  I am sure many, if not everyone has struggled with this question at some point in their life.  Sometimes life just plain stinks and there is no rhyme or reason for why things happen.  People get ill... they die young... good people, people who have not done anything wrong to anyone else.


I conclude that my search to explore spirituality in a humorous way has one major flaw - life just isn't humorous all the time!   

Waiting

Advent is all about waiting....  I can't say I am a particularly patient person and it seems to be getting worse as I get older.  Still wait I must.  Have you ever waiting for a bus that doesn't arrive?  Then four buses come along at the same time.  This is the world of Jo at the moment.  Christmas it seems is just around the corner - or at least I hope it is. 


May the Lord bless you and keep you this Christmas - and leave you something nice under the tree!    

We will remember them

I really should have written this blog before Remembrance Sunday but my head has not really been in the right place.  One of my husband's (John) close friends from the army was amongst those who were shot and killed by a rogue policeman in Afghanistan.  RSM Darren Chant was 40, recently married in August to Sheenie who is expecting their first child together.  Daz has three children from a previous marriage and was a real family man and a larger than life character.  I will always remember his grin and his wit.  John has known Daz for some 20 years plus.  Daz was one of John's recruits in the depot - no doubt John put him through his paces.

Remembrance Sunday was poignant this year.

What makes you who you are?

Today I had the privilege of conducting a service renewing a couples marrage vows on the occasion of their 25th wedding anniversary.  Mark and Gill have had a tough time recently as Mark nearly died.  It was a great to have been asked to take the service for them - but why me?  I am not yet ordained and I am still searching for that church to which God has called me to.  I am at present nomadic - a pilgrim on a journey.  Is this perhaps a way for God to affirm my calling?  Am I to be a pastor to the pastorless?

Mark and Gill were married in an Anglican church and it was to this church that they returned 25 years later to renew their promises before God and in the presence of their children and their partners.  The service was short, yet intimate and extreamly moving.  God was there and His presence was real.  I wouldn't have missed it for the world.  Today nothing else mattered, no essay, no lecture or anything else was going to get in the way of the task in hand.  I can't say that I felt particularly upbeat today - more miserable like the weather.  (It has rained most of the day.)  But today I had a commission - a job to do - a priestly role to fulfill.  Is seems strange but yet perfectly normal to be standing at the alter in an Anglican church.  (I am an eccumenical.)  The vicar did not mind me conducting the service, Mark and Gill wanted me to do it, I wanted to, and more importantly, I feel it was what God had called me to do today. 

But I am left with a question - what makes you who you are?  Is it a label?  Is it an ordination service?  Is it what you do?  Is it other people?  Or is it God?  I am who I am.  Imperfect, a bit moody at the moment, inadequate in so many ways and a sinner.  But by the grace of God I am forgiven, redeemed and made perfect by the blood of the lamb.  I am a child of God and it is God who makes me who I am.  Today, dispite the rain, it has been a good day.