It was school holidays. And as it so happens my little three-year-old granddaughter did not sleep in as her parents would have liked. She woke up her usual early time and came into their bedroom. “Time to wake up.” There was no movement in the big bed but a groan. “I’m ready for breakfast.” Again, no movement but a deep voice from her Dad from the depths of the blankets said “You go, I’ll meet you there.” She replied, “I’ll help you.” And proceeded to pull off all of the blankets. Because her Mum was holding onto the blankets on her side of the bed and would not let go,…

Have you ever done a whole lot of washing and then things happened in the day that you got so busy that you never got a chance to fold and put everything away? Then the next day and the next day it occurred again and, coming from a family of 7, the piles of washing grew into mountains, or so it seemed. The loads of folding that came from those loads of washing, once added to the original pile, became a mountain of clothes. Added to that pile was 3 days of baby’s cloth nappies. (No, I did not use disposables – they were not around much when my children…

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. John 10:10b NRSV I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows]. John 10:10b AMP Many of us, if not all of us have heard this scripture many times. But have we truly heard it?  I heard it the other day with a different mindset, a different slant. Jesus came to give us abundant life. Another way of putting it is that Jesus, the son of God, is the God of abundance. What does this abundance mean? The dictionary meaning is – a very large quantity of something. The spiritual meaning…

My mind can’t concentrate. I feel very blah, blank even. So even though my thoughts seem to be in a fog, and I can’t see a light in the tunnel (or even where the end of the tunnel is), I know God is with me. I feel like I am groping in the dark but still have God’s presence with me. Past experiences, past knowledge and truly knowing God tells me this. God is still near me. I, for whatever reason, can’t rely on my today feelings. I don’t need to dig deep, to push through, to be positive, to try harder. To do it in my human effort. No.…

The nurse called out a name. No one moved. The name was called out a bit louder and there was movement to my left side. A gentleman stood up and stated to the nurse that it was ‘this lady here’ but she was hard of hearing. I turned to see an elderly lady in her dressing gown, sitting in a wheelchair. The nurse came over pushing a blood pressure machine on wheels. After taking the lady’s blood pressure the nurse went back into rooms on the other side of the sliding door. A very chesty cough could be heard over to my right, behind a barricade. The few people sitting…