According to the Gospel writers, the Transfiguration was a cloudy occasion, as was the Ascension. The poet, Wordsworth, associated clouds with loneliness and clouds have frequently been favoured as subjects by painters.
Upon entering an unfamiliar residence you might be fortunate enough to feel immediately at ease because it is a place where basic goodness and friendliness exist side-by-side.
A birth, a baby in imminent danger; a dangerous journey and a homeland left behind; a beckoning light in the darkness; an inspirational child and a humble family again at peace.
If someone described the above elements to you, what story would spring most readily to your mind?
One very specific teaching of Jesus was that at the very heart of our concern and actions in following him should be, before all else, our determination to meet the needs of everyone in our community.
It is an attitude that arouses my instant and involuntary aversion! Kenneth Grahame, the writer of The Wind in the Willows, knew of this mindset, illustrating it to perfection in his description of Mr Toad standing beside his canary-coloured caravan summoning his long-suffering friends: “Let me show you the world!”
