Sometimes, life is a little chaotic. Actually with children, most of our time is chaotic, especially at the moment with many of us having to find ways to engage our kids with school work whilst working from home. The lockdown may be easing, but if you’re anything like us, we’re still very much inside our family bubble. Having children in year 5, 7 and 9 means that they are unlikely to go back to school before the end of the year and with the impending move to Birmingham (have I told you?) for September, it’s been all hands on deck as we prep the house and garden for prospective buyers.
So it was a complete joy to have so many different people join us on Sunday for our Talents and Power session. A real encouragement! Our story was taken from Pentecost, with everyone reading a tiny bit and giving us an illustration or video to go with what was going on. Again, much chaos ensued, but I think that the best part was James and his brother using water pistols to baptise the 3000 “added on that day” – a whole 3000 coloured in the day before, and then pinned to their fence ready to baptise. Brilliant! It’s amazing what talents we can use, when given a bit of time and imagination.
But isn’t that what Pentecost is all about? A story of God giving THE best gift, to a bunch of ordinary people and allowing them to run with it to produce surprising results. But more than that, he purposely gave something (or some one – sorry) really precious to allow something amazing to happen. We thought about how our gifts and talents (including balancing a spoon on your nose) might be used for God’s purpose and what gifts he has given us. Paul had us thinking about the story of a girl who took her father to hospital on a bicycle, a distance of over 1000 km. You never know when your talents will be used in surprising ways.
In times like these, when there is a lot of chaos going on, I think it would be good to reflect on how God’s power, in the Holy Spirit, helps us to overcome feelings of doubt and fear, allowing us to love beyond what we could possibly imagine. So why not make our spirit paper helicopters – write on your gifts and talents and as you let it fly, ask God to use you and those gifts in amazing ways.
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