DANGEROUS LITERATURE

Clutching a magical book full of poems was going to lead my little seven  year old feet

on a path to danger. Who would have thought that poetry could do any harm? But Robert Louis Stevenson's, "A Child's Garden of Verses" particularly the poem,
     
      "Up into the cherry tree
        Who should climb but little me?
        I held the trunk with both my hands
        And looked abroad on foreign lands."

did prove to be dangerous.
Because of it, I went in search of a cherry tree on a farm in central Africa. Since there weren't any cherry trees, I had to settle for a peach tree and ascend it's wooden limbs in anticipation of sighting China.

But I lost my grip at the treetop and fell tearing my arm on a jagged branch. It would be forty years and a fresh injury before a surgeon repaired the scarred nerve sheath in that arm. The curiosity for foreign lands remained and the eagerness to read about them was never quenched. One day I visited Robert L. Stevenson's writing room in Edinburgh,Scotland and mused at his desk at the literary delights he had provided me in my childhood.

Reading and writing poetry became second nature to me and comforting too during those long years of boarding school in a country at war with itself.

Vivid imagery in literature has enriched my mind ever since I could read, and then along came my favourite poet. He composed and sang praise poetry. In his childhood he sang his poems to the sheep he was shepherding. He was a curly-haired boy with a ruddy complexion and a rural upbringing. I knew a little about growing up on a farm! This young farm poet grew up to be one of the greatest kings in history - David, King of the Jews. He wrote:
         
          "The LORD is my shepherd
            I shall not be in want.
            He makes me lie down in green pastures,
            He leads me beside quiet waters,
            He resores my soul."

And who inspired such beautiful verses?

God Himself! "All Scripture is God-breathed ..." (2 Timothy 3 v 16)
And when I read about "The Living Word" - I had to meet Him - I came to know Him as my Saviour and Lord, I continue to meet with Him daily in prayer and through the pages of His divinely written book, The Holy Bible - He is my inspiration and the author of life - JESUS CHRIST! And if I examine Jesus' family tree in Matthew's and Luke's Gospel accounts, I find King David, my favourite poet, he is one of King Jesus' ancestors.  
 

 

 

The Stolen Treasure

The Stolen Treasure

There was nothing I prized more than this treasure in front of me! It was my parents’ gift to me as I started my formal education at boarding school. It lay across my lap in a wooden box. A sovereign’s crown jewels guarded by soldiers couldn’t have been more precious than this exquisite possession that I was holding on to.

The slide of the wooden lid made a smooth soft sound. I had to keep sliding that lid – open, then close, open then close – the treasure inside had me mesmerised. The sunlight coming through the sides of the farm truck made the contents burst into life as we journeyed along the long road to town. There they lay on a silk pillow, lapis lazuli crafted into a beautiful fountain pen and pencil set.

Already, my mind pictured the sheets of paper that I would write on. The delight at forming letters and words and even sentences, intensified the visual excitement of staring at my treasure on my lap. Homesickness and saying good-bye to my parents wouldn’t be so difficult because I had my two new shiny friends, lying on this silk pillow in a wooden pencil box.

It was only a few weeks later and the joy of looking at my pen and pencil set was still as intense as ever, I reverently slid open the wooden lid to take yet another loving look at my encased treasures ….. they were gone! Even after a thorough search, my treasure was still nowhere to be seen. There was no one to tell. No parents at hand, and no adult that I felt confident enough to approach and tell this devastating discovery to. But I did think it over many times in my mind, someone had seen my treasure and wanted it for herself. It was hard to accept that my treasure had been stolen. Would the thief treasure this exquisite pen and pencil? Would she wrap it in a silky cloth and keep it safe? Would she write with them? What had made her think that she could take away my treasure? Someone had declared war on my innocent world and so I learned of the human condition that has polluted the world ever since the first humans lived in the Garden of Eden.

Temptation and sin—powerful, destructive and suffocating. I was very young but old enough to discover that the effect of sin was disappointment and loss. It was the end of the world as I knew it.

At times, the sky was the same Lapis Lazuli colour as my lost treasure, the changing shades of ultramarine and azure captivated my imagination, my loss was dulled by the days being filled with making friends with the many other farmers’ children, there was the delight of learning and discovering all sorts of new things and the fun on the sports fields of emerald green – there were many experiences to treasure out there – not the kind that was kept hidden, but the treasures of getting to know people, observing the landscape all around us, the glory of the Creator was visible in a natural setting for all to see.   

The Creator – Almighty God displays his jewel-like stars in the night sky. He has even named each star, one by one. But God’s greatest and most treasured gift came when God made His light shine in our hearts, by giving us understanding that the glory of God is in the face of His Son, Jesus Christ. God enables us by faith to fix our eyes on the invisible, eternal, all-surpassing, person of Jesus Christ. Once we are given this treasure, He cannot be kept hidden inside us – He shines for the world to share and see.  

Bringing colour to life

Bringing colour to life

When one thinks “brown”, do you think of chocolate? Whether it’s a mousse or a sauce to go over creamy ice cream or brownies that melt in your mouth, or the soft, slow dissolve on the tongue of a Swiss slab, they’re all happy “brown thoughts”. It wasn’t always that way. There weren’t any chockie experiences in my early years, but there were many brown moments, that weren’t nearly so tasty.

The overwhelming heaviness of a huge brown brick building loomed large in my six-year old vision, combined with the brown shoes and socks and dark brown dress and the brown felt hat. This was the colour of a heavy little heart, parting from her mother and stepping into the unknown.

The day had begun with my very longhair being cropped into a style that my little fingers could manage. Over and over, I had been shown how to tie shoelaces. It was time to be independent of help and there wouldn’t be a rescuer if I tangled my hair or my shoelaces. Many had survived boarding school (although I couldn’t call to mind any of their hardy faces) it wasn’t going to be all brown days… there were bound to be dark grey days too! Homesickness wasn’t an option for us farm reared children who were about to be transformed from free-range into battery-chickens in dormitories with long lines of brown-blanketted beds.

The beauty and freedom of the bush had been replaced with a monotone. There were fourteen little pink rabbits staring into the headlights of matron who towered in the doorway of “Dorm 1”. I would soon get into trouble for unwittingly drawing an unflattering picture of matron because she had many folds of skin around her neck and I’d never seen an old person close up. My innocence was shattered when an older girl said it was unkind to draw a picture of an old person when making a birthday card (especially a close up “portrait”). Everybody over the age of 20yrs appeared old so instead I drew portraits in the sand with a twig – it was a happy combination of an artistic outlet and playing in the dirt – what a wonderful pastime. The brown dirt had it’s own little movie screen of ants, beetles and best of all, those crafty little antlions, who make conical sandtraps to capture ants to eat. Little brown antlions soon grow up to be exquisite dragonflies and that was inspiration enough for me.

After the Deluge, which is recorded in the Holy Bible, God promised never to destroy everything on the earth by flood again and He gave the world the sign of a rainbow in the clouds to remind us that God would keep His word for ever. He sent a blessing with it too, the blessing of enjoying all of His creation, even the thin strip of brown in it.

After rains, a rainbow can often be seen there in the clouds. It’s a reminder to keep looking up and looking toward God – He is close.          

Giving up a beloved child

The knot in her stomach tightened, and the pull at her heart caused her to catch her breath. She was being brave as the trunks were loaded onto the farm truck. Each child climbed alongside a suitcase, the uniforms were buttoned up and restraining. It seemed as if all playfulness had been strangled out of each child. Those barefooted, carefree feet were now incarcerated by school shoes. It had been three weeks of delicious freedom to roam the bush and hills, now it was over and the trunk ladened farm truck made its long journey from the hilltop farmhouse, bumping and jolting the family towards the boarding schools in town. The young mother kept a calm expression and voice and yet she dreaded these back to school days, and the return trip to the farm without her brood of four lively children. She gave up her beloved children at the beginning of every school term, it was always painful, it was always necessary.

And so did God do that for us,  He gave up His beloved and only Son, Jesus Christ, and sent Him into this world to save this world from the coming judgement and condemnation of sin. Whoever turns to and trusts this beloved Son of God, Jesus Christ, to remove personal sins and receive His righteousness - will be saved. The beloved one and only Son of God did not return home to His heavenly Father's side until His term of purpose on earth ended with His cruel death - which was the full payment for our freedom! He did not stay buried, He rose from the dead and ascended back to heaven and sent His Holy Spirit - for you and for me! Thank you!