成人快手

Good morning.

One of my university teachers in England, reflecting an attitude of those times, warned me against going back to Scotland and becoming a minister and having tea with old ladies.

But I came back to Scotland and met a teacher called Ian Henderson, who later became a good friend.聽 And I won鈥檛 forget the first thing he said to a class I joined.

鈥淵ou鈥檒l be tempted to think that as ministers all you have to do is have tea every day with old ladies.聽 But he added that some of them 鈥溾�� have more to teach you about coping with the difficulties of life, and overcoming them, than you could ever imagine鈥�.

I like the description written by George Orwell:聽 鈥淥ld maids biking to Holy Communion through the mists of the autumn mornings.聽 These are not only fragments, but characteristic fragments of the English scene鈥�.

For Orwell the distinctive image told its own powerful story.聽 Our family has spent the past two summers on the islands of Islay and Jura, where George Orwell wrote his best-known book, 1984.聽聽 His son later wrote about these days: 鈥淲e were just sitting there on dark afternoons in winter time, and to while away the time he would tell me stories.聽 I think he made the stories up as he went along鈥�.

Perhaps you remember what Peter Pan asked Wendy when she said she would tell him a story.聽 He said 鈥淎m I in this story?鈥澛� The friends of Jesus knew that they were in the stories he told 鈥� and it wasn鈥檛 always comfortable.

Help us, good Lord, to understand that many stories we hear can help us if we truly listen.
And help us to learn that even the simplest stories you told were all about us.聽 Amen.