Whoa! Suddenly this morning it was Autumn with a vengeance! Checking the weather before walking Wil I discovered it was only 8 degrees. Brrrrr! Since it is still September I’m still firmly wearing sandals but as a concession to the day I dug out some fingerless gloves and enjoyed a brisk walk followed by an even brisker bike ride to church. Because my vintage Schwinn is in need of some fender bolts I rode the coaster bike, which I normally only use for neighbourhood runs, but it took me safely down and back, Praise God!
Today marked the first of sermon series at St. Stephen’s that will be taking us through until Advent. It is based on the Apostles Creed so, obviously the topic for this morning was “God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth”.
My plan was to take a look at creation and focus a bit on the fact that the Creed begins by naming God the Father as “Creator of Heaven and Earth”. I like this fact because so often the images of God in the Old Testament are all about fire and brimstone and gruesome punishments so I am really glad that the theologians who crafted the Creed chose to focus on God the Father as “Creator”. a pretty cool concept to explore with children.
We had the big felt board out to look at the Creation Story and clay so they could choose to shape creatures and understand a bit about the Biblical imagery of forming Man from clay. After scrubbing off our hands we were each to start writing out the Apostle’s Creed with “I believe…” and plan to add a few lines each week throughout the Fall Series.
As it turned out three year old Olivia was the only child present but John was there to help so we all headed upstairs where she really enjoyed building the felt board,, eating a hearty snack and then forming a clay “polar bear”. Instead of writing out the first part of the Creed she drew pictures of a man and a woman and a “rainbow polar bear”! It was special spending time with her and she was not intimidated with two adults to keep her entertained.
After another cold ride home followed by a hot mug of coffee I quickly whiffled round the garden and took Wil for his afternoon walk. We needed to do two drop offs- the first at the CO-OP where one of the extremely helpful staff members was working her last day before moving to the US, then over to the house of a friend who’s birthday is this week and for whom I had crafted a small gift. With only five minutes to spare we sprinted in the front door and laid out a tray of juice and cookies ready to welcome Pippa and her brood who came for a little visit. Pippa is currently battling bronchitis, with three small children and she and her husband Paul both working full-time I had insisted on preparing a whole dinner “kit” for them, which she is going to serve the family on Tuesday.
Although today has been nothing like as busy as last Sunday there has been a lovely Sabbath rhythm to it, a real break from worrying about computer woes, time to spend with dear friends (and one of my Godsons!!) and now a brief hour in which to bask in the late afternoon sunshine, snatching another of these final days on the porch
Better wrap this post up and get to work on some of my Christmas knitting!!!