So, as I’m already in this ‘mode’, decided to start the day with Advent Reading…
These lists of genealogies are quite hard to get to grips with! As a historian I am looking for more of the stories attached to these people, rather than just a list of names (probably why I find ‘mechanical museums’ which focus on the technology, rather than the use that people made of them, and how they lived with that technology – a tad boring!) – but then is we read the Old Testament (which I have done cover-to-cover once!) those names will start to emerge as we start to see the entire history woven together. As Maggi says
To make sense of the new covenant, you have to start with the old covenant.”
Reading the material from Ron Glusenkamp, we return to the idea of the power of story that we connected with earlier this Advent – the stones in Joshua 4:6-7 are there as a memorial (I’ve done some teaching work on the meaning of memorials so v interesting) to encourage storytelling so that people would remember their past, their heritage – they were not dead/mechanical stones to be admired, but there to help us anchor our place in our world and remember the stories of our past.
As Pam has written this morning – and something I heartily believe – and why I was working in the Learning and Teaching Development Unit at University of Winchester…:
This brings me back to one of my pet themes. Not everyone learns the same way, not everyone hears the same way, not everyone experiences the same way. Some of us need story rooted in people, some of us need history rooted in fact – but both take us to the same place. To the God who loves us and was and is working in people’s lives, through history and story – for both are the same, expressed in different ways.
Brian Draper today offers a challenge ” Pass on the grace, when you get the opportunity, especially to someone you find difficult.”
And if you want a unique way to send a family newsletter – check out @davewalker’s cartoon from today!
