I will admit that my writing has suffered a little lately (okay - make that a LOT). I have been using my TrekLens account as a visual blog and posting almost a picture a day, with careful notes that reveal to those in the know what is going on in my life.
But since I really want to get back into writing again, this is a good way to redevelop the habit -- hmm can habits be "redeveloped?"
Yesterday I had a great time with my grandson, although a did get my times all muddled and really cost myself an hour and a quarter of very precious time with the little guy. I was supposed to be in Guelph at 9:30 and instead I left Richmond Hill at 9:30, which made his mother very justifiably very angry -- and then discovered that the lad was accustomed to going to sleep some time between 12:30 and 1:00.
But while he was a awake: He really amazes me: he is completely fearless - something that could not have been said of his mother at that age. He throws himself into the ball pit (and winces before he does so!) and then kicks the balls around as if they were water. This is a kid who really should be playing in a pool!
I would love to include a photo of him, but these days one really cannot be that sure of who is out there looking - so I will forgo that pleasure.
So, the picture of the day is appropriate for a fresh start, a new beginning, a redevelopment: a baptismal font.
The text on the font stand is the germ of some serious thoughts, which I have shared as notes on the same image in the above-named TrekLens account.
The words on the stand of this baptismal font come from the King James version of the Christian Bible. They are an old-fashioned translation of Jesus’ words: “Suffer little children to come unto me.” The verb “suffer,” used with an object, means “allow.” For example, here is a common saying: “I will not suffer fools gladly.” All Jesus meant when he said those words when people were crowding around him at a gathering (and pushing the children away) was - "Let the children come to me too - don't keep them away. They are as important as the grownups."
But today that word is rarely used in that sense, and so the archaic term feels out of place in a church setting and raises the question: “Why must children suffer?”
Our little ones suffer when we do not pay enough attention to them and their needs. And they suffer all the more if we do not protect them from the outside world.
Some sober thoughts on a sombre Sunday morning
