Sharing some thoughts

From Helen As you know I enjoy telling stories, I thought this morning that as it’s a while sine I told you a story I would tell you one. So, are you sitting comfortably ?  Once upon a time a woodcutter took his grandson into the forest for his first experience in selecting and cutting oak trees. These they would sell on to boat builders. As they walked along, the woodcutter explained that the purpose of each tree is contained in its natural shape: some are straight for planks, some have the proper curves for the ribs of a boat, and some are tall for masts. The woodcutter told his grandson that by paying attention to the details of each tree, and with experience in recognizing these characteristics, someday he too might become the woodcutter of the forest. A little way into the forest, the grandson saw an old oak tree that had never been cut. The boy asked his grandfather if he could cut it down because it was useless for boat building – there were no straight limbs, the tru

I am aware that children all want some unusual things. There is the child who will only eat food that is a certain colour,  there is the child who wants and prays for a dog  and in my case the child who wants a lamb. Now that sounds very nice and you might picture a lovely setting for growing up with fields and lots of green. In my case I lived on a council housing estate in Cardiff without much green. I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t have a lamb after all we did have a  garden ! I was thinking about this as I looked at our readings for today, readings which talk of sheep and shepherds. In our readings we heard what is  p erhaps the most well known Psalm, Psalm 23 The Lord is my Shepherd. Then in our gospel reading (John 10:1-11) we heard of Jesus as the good shepherd.  I really don’t know much about the countryside, I have lived in a rural  area and did learn there that if  a bull is coming towards you, move slowly  away , I also learnt not to check that others don’t fall

The 50th anniversary of the murder of Martin Luther King fell earlier this week and it was he who said, ‘Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase’... It’s perhaps a challenge which some of us will struggle with at times and today in our gospel reading (John 20:19-31), we have one of the most famous doubters in the Bible – Thomas. It’s hard to believe that anybody could fail to have some sympathy for Thomas – Jesus had risen from the dead and had appeared to the disciples – but Thomas wasn’t with them, and when they told him, he simply thought they’d gone mad or perhaps were just trying to play some sort of mean trick on him. Perhaps in these circumstances we might all think the same. They had seen Jesus, but he hadn’t… There may be many reasons for Thomas’ doubts but this morning I want to think of 3 – and each of them offer something for us to think about as well…  Firstly perhaps Thomas had gone a little bit cold in his faith. He had been wit