Friday 29 September 2017

God at work

This week we have been exploring the theme of creation, consider just how amazing God's handiwork is and how we have a responsibility to look after it and to sustain it.



I love the part in Genesis were God gives Adam the task of naming all the animals. What a challenge to be creative that was and how challenging it must have been to come up with so many different names. Equally challenging was the responsibility to care for the world that God had created, not just in terms of the environment and all the living creatures, but also in terms of the way that God intended the world to be lived in.

As we have been exploring this amazing concept of creation and how mind blowing it is in terms of the detail, variety and the complexity of even just the smallest insect. I  was also drawn to think about the human aspect of the world that God created.

Last term we explored the theme of being a peacekeeper and how each of us every day in our lives can do something that can enable peace. Peace is a strange word and when I use to teach year 6, I would challenge the children to think about what it meant in our day to day lives. One thing I would get them to do, was to think of what the opposite of peace looked like. This certainly focused their minds on how important peace was and how it is an essential part of God's call to live in the world that He created. 



One of my favourite songs is still 'Make me a channel of your peace'. I am not sure if I can separate the emotional context of the song for me from the power of its words. Sitting around campfires in my teenage years with my friends singing it remains something quite special to me. Mind you so does a song about a meatball sat on top of spaghetti that rolled on to the floor - but that is another story!



But the power of the words of that song still resonate with me. I have used it as a prayer many times and as we look afresh at our world again as we come to the time of harvest celebration. We need to be reminded that peace between us is an essential aspect of the way God intended His world to be enjoyed.