How much does God love his children?

Yesterday I wrote about how much we love our children. I got a couple of answers to that - some on facebook, others on here - along the lines of "of course we would be reconciled, of course that is the better thing to do, of course that is the thing Jesus teaches us to do".

Now another question.

Does God (through Jesus) ask more of us than he would be willing/able to do himself?

We would forgive our children and desire reconciliation with them - even after death if we could. We would not tell them never to come near us again - even after death, if we had the choice. We would never, ever tell them it was too late. Yet we are supposed to believe that God would refuse to even give the option of reconciliation and forgiveness, and would choose to reject them?

The God who is both loving and just.

The God of whom Jesus once said "If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"

The God who desires all men to be saved.

Are we more loving than God?
Are we more just than God?
Are we more capable of forgiveness than God?
Are we more Christ-like than God?

The post of my uncle's which I referenced yesterday included the following sentence:

[I] am getting more and more frustrated by the God that Rob Bell describes.
He’s just too small.

Is a God who desires and allows reconciliation with us really too small just because, as Bell suggests, he doesn't make death the cut-off point?

Smaller than a god who says "sorry, you're too late"?
Smaller than a god whose justice requires the guilty child to suffer for a while longer (forever?) so as to make them really repent, the fact that they're standing there all repentant not being enough?
Smaller than a god whose never-failing love actually ends at the point of death?
Smaller than a god who demands that we love our enemies, while condemning his to eternal torment?
Or a god who only loves us after we become Christians and thus his children, so that he doesn't care what happens to non-believers? (Yes I have heard that said, altough I doubt that it's a common belief)

You'll notice that I didn't capitalise God in those sentences. That's because I actually think the god they describe is too small. Too small to be the real God, the one portrayed by Christ ("the image of the invisible God"), the one who - rather than inflicting suffering - suffered and suffers for us and with us, the one who breaks down walls rather than creating them, the one who is at work reconciling all things to him. That God is glorious and amazing and his love for everyone is completely beyond my comprehension.

How much do you love your child(ren)?

Let's imagine a family. Two parents, and several children, but we're just interested in one, who we will call Kim Smith (because the child's gender doesn't matter*).

When Kim is about 16, there is an argument. It's really a very big argument, and Kim ends up running away and refusing to see Mr and Mrs Smith for a very long time. Let's say 5 years. Then Kim realises, somehow, perhaps through one of the other children or a family friend, that it was actually all a misunderstanding, and returns to the family seeking reconciliation.

Now imagine you are Mr or Mrs Smith.

Would you refuse to be reconciled to Kim, your child, after 5 years apart?
How about after 10 years?
20? 30? 50? 70? (We're assuming everyone involved is still alive.)

Let's suppose you died and all ended up in heaven. Kim didn't come back to you before your death, but now your child comes looking for you.

"Oh, sorry," you say. "It's too late, you know. You're dead now. You should have come a bit sooner and we could have been reconciled, but now, no sorry, I don't want to ever see you again. After all, I have plenty of other children. Ciao!"

(Would you say that? If not, let's pretend you would for a moment.)

Your spouse, the other Smith parent, disagrees and chooses to be reconciled - and that's ok with you, of course, as long as you don't have to be involved.

Now then.
Which of you two parents, if any, is the bigger person? Why?
Which of you, if any, is the more godly** person? Why?
Which of you, if any, is the more loving person? Why?
Which of you, if any, is the more just person? Why?


I will write more about this next week, but in the meantime, my uncle got me thinking about this, so if you'd like to see how, please check out his blog here.

*If you didn't think "Kim" could be used for either sex, check out Rudyard Kipling's book of the same name. It's an excellent read.

**I'm working with a Christian perspective here, but I'd also be interested to hear your reply based on other belief systems if this scenario works within them.

Some thoughts on short-term missions

Summer is coming and for lots of people that means it's short-term mission season! I've only been on one STM. India when I was 18. I was woefully ill-prepared - as much my own fault as anyone else's perhaps - and I'm sure I committed any number of faux-pas. Like dancing without shoes on because flipflops are so hard to dance in. No one told me how inappropriate it was to have no shoes on. No one told me that flip flops are for indoor wear in India - until years later my friend who is married to an Indian mentioned it. Who knows what other worrying things I did on that trip in my ignorance!

Anyway I wanted to link to an excellent blog post by Tara Livesay, whose name some of you may recognise from the Haiti Earthquake coverage last year. She blogs about some of the problems that can arise for long-term missionaries after the short-term mission has gone home (or even while they're still there). It's worth reading if you're thinking about going on mission, just so you can be better prepared than I was. If you read the link, do read the comments too, many people have made interesting points and given helpful advice for would-be short-term missionaries. And if you don't read it now, do bookmark her blog to read later anyway. It'll make you laugh and weep and cry out to God for Haiti (and other things) - sometimes all in the same post.

Here's the link: http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/2011/03/thinking-through-stm.html

Rob Bell... any thoughts?

I know many people out there dislike Rob Bell intensely and think he's a heretic. Their number may, perhaps, be equalled by those who are huge fans, own all his published works and listen to his Sunday sermons through the internet.

I fall into neither of those camps. I came across Rob Bell through my parents, who showed us one of his DVDs - not the short Nooma ones, but the longer live show ones - which The Engineer and I liked very much and subsequently purchased along with another one of his. I also hear about him, occasionally, on Brian McLaren's blog, which I follow. But I have never read anything of his, until now.

With all the uproar about the new book, I was intrigued, not sufficiently to acquire a copy, but sufficiently to get involved in several discussions on Facebook. But in the end, after getting tired of seeing article after article, on this blog and that, lambasting the poor man without actually having read what he had to say, I decided perhaps a purchase was in order. Since we like his spoken style (and have heard "interesting" things about how that looks in writing) we decided to go for the audiobook, read by himself, and so far we've not been disappointed. I also like audiobooks read by the author because you can be sure that what you "hear" in your mind is what they actually meant. Or at least, surer than if you were merely reading words on paper.

I'm not going to blog about it on here - maybe the occasional thought but not much - but if you have thoughts or would like to read more of my thoughts I'd love you to pop across to my dad's new blog where he is musing about his own responses and where I also comment, sometimes at length. (Surprise surprise!)

Here's what he has to say about his blog:

I’ve never been one for journaling and although I use Facebook I’ve not blogged either. But earlier this month I joined a discussion – a series of messages really – started by my daughter on Facebook and found I had a lot of thoughts. My brother joined in too and the discussion became rather long. So I thought: “A blog is the place for this.” And here we are!

I'm sure he'd be happy to receive comments. And so would I - here or there!

An eco-friendly time of month?

So this post may be a little TMI, especially for any men reading this. Just stop reading if you get grossed out, okay?

I had no idea how many sanitary towels/tampons one woman can go through in a lifetime. And now I've forgotten the figure. But it was a lot, like 7000 or something. And all of those end up in landfill, or floating around at sea somewhere. Now if you thought they were gross in your litter bin, how gross is thousands of them in a landfill? Also, how environmentally unfriendly are they?

OK, I know that there are organic, biodegradable pads out there... somewhere... but they're expensive and for me at least hard to get hold of. I'll be honest though, expensive matters more. Switzerland is dear enough without buying expensive disposable stuff! I also know that you can make or buy re-usable pads. From where I'm standing, that is a great idea. If you have your own washing machine. But if, like me, you live in a block of flats with a shared machine in the laundry room, you don't want to be saving all that stuff up to wash once a week on "your" day to use the machine. And I absolutely do not want to be handwashing them. Eww. (Although I am still bearing it in mind for if my current solution doesn't work out).

So here's what I think is the very very best option.

Last year I heard about menstrual cups and for some reason I didn't really follow up on it till this year, when I made it a New Year's goal to get one and at least try using it. A menstrual cup, in case you've not come across the phrase before, is just that, a small cup for collecting menstrual fluid. Not to keep, of course. :-) It's like a tampon but it doesn't soak up the fluid and is reusable - for about 5 or 10 years! This means that while they can be a bit pricey, you do save money in the long run. I worked out that in my case, at about 9 months I'm breaking even and from then on I'm saving money. That's if I only buy one. Some people buy a smaller and a larger one. But even then I'd still break even after only 18 months of using them. And think how much stuff is not going into landfill. And then think of all the chemicals that are now not going into my body.

My husband can't quite understand why I'm so excited about this. :-)

So I'm not going to go into any more detail here but for anyone interested in finding out more, I found this brilliant blog by a lady who has tried out loads of different cups and writes about them to help other ladies decide which might be the best for them. And after reading the comparison charts carefully I chose one and ordered it, and today it has arrived and I am so excited! I can't wait to try it out and see if it really lives up to what the people who use these things say about it! I'm also thrilled because the company sent me a second one free of charge (it has a tiny mark in the silicone which means they can't sell it, but it's still safe to use) which is a different size and style to the one I ordered. So if I don't like mine, I can try that to see if I just have the wrong size, or if cups aren't for me after all.

All of this means there will probably be another post about this sometime in March. I was just too excited not to blog about it straight away.

And if you've used a menstrual cup and been happy (or sad) with it, or just have thoughts about anything I've mentioned here, I'd love to hear from you! Leave me a comment. :-)

Christmas fake-Danish-hearts

This post has been linked to learning cooperative ABC&123 - check them out!

This is a close-up of our Advent calendar. These are "real" Danish hearts. You can find a tutorial for making them here or by Googling "Danish heart baskets". They're fun to do if you're old enough, but no good for our five-year old. Also they're much easier with paper than with felt - I know because we tried felt last year. But here's what I'm talking about today:

This is our Advent "wreath". Cute, and much easier! We got ours from Ikea, full of tea-lights. Now the tea-lights are hidden it looks much better.

Here's what you need. Well some of what you need. Old wrapping paper or craft paper in various colours - we used both. Scissors, pencil, ruler, template...

You can use the template for making real Danish hearts too - click on the picture if you want a better look. To make the template, we used the bottom of a wine glass and then extended the sides till they were the same length as the diameter of the wineglass (you can see I've marked the identical lengths "A"). To make our decoration we needed to cut out four hearts from plain paper (any colour would do) because I wasn't sure about Froglet gluing stuff directly onto the backdrop. And for some reason I started drawing six. Never mind eh.

Don't worry about that little mark on the template where it says "plus a bit"- that's not relevant here. It just shows to make the cuts a bit longer so it's easier to weave the strips together on a real heart basket.

Here I'm cutting out the template from the coloured paper that we're using to decorate our hearts. Whatever colours you like - we always used red-and-green when I was little.

Cut out the semi-circle and then divide the square into equal parts - I think sixteen would be more traditional but we chose the easy option and did nine. Froglet only cut the little squares out because I don't really trust him with curvy lines yet for something that's actually going to be in the middle of the table for a month! Yes I know. One day I may be less of a perfectionist.

Glue your cut-out paper onto the plain paper heart, making sure your child knows to alternate the colours like a chess-board. Then stick your heart onto whatever you're using it for, if you didn't do that directly. I glued ours on a piece of gold wrapping paper cut to more-or-less fit around the inside of the Ikea candle vase...

Turns out I didn't measure that carefully enough and the vase is wider at the top than the bottom so it doesn't sit quite flat. But at least my semi-circles are well-cut-out. :-)

Advent activities - Week Three

The last week of school was a busy time

Baking and cake decorating

Sewing, knitting and crocheting
Ironing new patches on very old jeans
Reading Christmas books
Playing with friends
Building with Lego
Sledging in the wonderful foot-deep snow on the hill outside
And wondering whether Christmas will actually be spent where we intended...

Christmas cake shared with dear friends...

...who brought us this lovely gift

First gift from Froglet opened

Second gift adorning the shelf
in a beautiful bag he decorated himself at school

"We three kings of Orient are

With our psychedelic camels we travel afar...

...Field and fountain, moor and mountain

Foll'wing a felted star!"

Didn't Froglet do a lovely job on those camels?
Wooden shapes from the DIY store which he coloured with felt-tip pens and glitter glue.