OH TO BE IN ENGLAND

All On An April Evening 

April airs were abroad;
The sheep with their little lambs
Pass'd me by on the road.

The sheep with their little lambs
Pass'd me by on the road;
All in an April evening
I thought on the Lamb of God.

The lambs were weary, and crying
With a weak human cry;
I thought on the Lamb of God
Going meekly to die.

Up in the blue, blue mountains
Dewy pastures are sweet:
Rest for the little bodies,
Rest for the little feet.

Rest for the Lamb of God
Up on the hill-top green;
Only a cross of shame
Two stark crosses between.

All in the April evening,
April airs were abroad;
I saw the sheep with their lambs,
And thought on the Lamb of God. 
Words by Kathryn Tynan

HOW HEAR YOU?

There are times when what we see leaves us literally SPEECHLESS. Equally so with what we hear, that too can leave us speechless. It is in these speech robbing moments that we thank God for the power of imagination. 
Imagination can translate everyday events and occurrences, opening our hearts to deeper and deeper things. Using the imagination in this way is a great help in  understanding  the Gospels. 

Many times the Gospels refer to Jesus "teaching" people, but he mostly taught not in a lecture-fashion, but in drawing lessons from the images about him.

A classic example comes from Mark chapter 4, "A sower went out to sow". He spoke from and of the countryside and lifestyle in which he lived. This made his words more alive and more memorable. They had no need to memorise as in formal teaching; his words came alive in their hearts precisely because their feet, and his, were planted in the realities of their every day.

Using these everyday images, Jesus helped people discover afresh the God they had heard about since childhood. But now it was different, Their own recognised "doctors of the Law" required them to cast aside the common and the everyday and go listen to them, the experts. The world in which Jesus spoke did not ask them to move one inch; God was with them, there in their very own world. No surprise then that they said of him, "he speaks with authority".

Remember that next time some well-intended preacher is ramming "the Gospel truth" down your throat. Many of us are easily deceived by our own alleged eloquence (especially Blog Writers!) 

What a stunning, galvanising, inspiring thought, that the God of our dreams is not so far away. Certainly not locked up in some place to which only learned experts have the key. No, he is here with us now in our everyday world, the one he created; the place we usually call life.