AN ANGEL AND AN ACCIDENT

We were quite a small congregation this morning at church - I guess lots of people were still away visiting relatives for Christmas.  A good service with some wonderful songs - somehow when we sing the Calypso Carol, I can never move in quite the same way as my Jamaican friend!  

It was a shorter service too, so more time to chat with people afterwards.  I found James hiding behind the curtain in one of the windows and persuaded him to let me take his photograph.  He loves playing the skin-covered Djembi drum that is very special to us, as we bought it for our grandson, who is now almost 21 years old, to play at church when he was about the same age as James.  James knows that he doesn’t use sticks on this drum, and I love it when he looks up at me with his angelic little face and says, “No sticks on the drum, only hands.”

So here he is, playing the drum and he thought no-one would know he was there behind the curtain!!  I wonder how often we hide behind something and think that God can’t see us?

Just after I had taken this, we heard a loud howl - K, one of our young people, who had played her saxophone so beautifully this morning, was helping to clear up and had somehow knocked over Susan’s guitar and when it landed on the floor it had snapped off at the top.  There was a moment of silence as we all realised what had happened and then we heard K saying over and over again, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to do it.”  

The damage to the guitar was evident, as you will see from the photograph, but Susan was very gracious;  in fact, she told K not to worry, as she would now not feel guilty when she had to buy a new guitar.  Susan and her daughter, who had played the keyboard this morning, and K and her Mum had a group hug - we all know that accidents happen and I have been encouraging K to come back next week - much like you would do if you had an accident in the car and someone encourages you to get back in and drive.  

All this made me think of the “stuff” that we accumulate but that we can actually manage without.  Yes, we will certainly miss Susan playing her guitar, and hope she soon gets a new one, but we still have our voices and can praise God, which is what I believe He wants us to do so DESPITE what happens in our lives.  

All of us get broken in some way,
     but what really matters
          is how we get back up
               and put the pieces back
TOGETHER.


P.S.  Thank you for all your kind comments on yesterday's blip - I had a wonderful birthday and am still the crazy lady I was when I was 69!!