For the greater good

The advent and christmas seasons include an undertone of sacrifice. Jewish religious practice included the sacrifice of animals - doves, sheep, goats - as an 'atonement' for human wrongdoing. Saul of Tarsus took this religious context and applied it to the executed Jesus. He cast the killing of the religious leader, not as a defeat for the movement, but as the ultimate victory: the one and only necessary sacrifice, atoning for all human evil for all time, obviating the need for animal offerings

Cleverly, Saul set this doctrine in the context of Hebrew scripture, that includes passages that anticipate a scion of the Jewish royal family being "led like a lamb to the slaughter" and "pierced for our transgressions" and "crushed for our iniquities". When the carol 'O come, O come Emmanuel' refers to the "branch of Jesse's stem", it is affirming this royal lineage (Jesse was father of King David) and its sacrificial destiny

A wise Welsh builder we once chatted to told us that limewash should be looked upon as a "sacrificial coating" - intended to protect the building, but liable to be lost in the process. Here is the fulfillment of that prophecy 

We were not in Oxfordshire during storm Bert, but we know that 7 or 8 village houses were flooded, and we have seen the blips! A great deal of water fell, accompanied by a strong south wind. In effect, this wall was power-hosed for many hours. It still has damp in it, and I have never known it to stay in that condition for so long, especially after some dry, sunny days

On its own, that is not a problem; it is slowly getting drier and the moisture is doing no harm. It is behaving as it is designed to do. But we have also had some sharp frosts, and I'm sure (because I have seen the sparkly ice crystals) they have frozen the water in the surface layers of the limewash, causing this exfoliation. A pity, as it only feels like a few weeks since I put it on, but I hear the words of the Welsh seer in the back of my mind, and all can be put right when winter is over, ready for the next sacrifice