By Charles Rutter
Tonsures! Not the recommended Christ Church haircut - although some of us seem to acquire one without any trouble! A Number 1 clipper will take off the lot for that cool, bald look, if you want?
No, this was my full house word in Scrabble. What’s more, it was my opening turn, on a triple, and earned me a tasty fifty bonus points.
Our very tatty set was unearthed for first lockdown last March (can’t believe that was a year ago!) Now we play three or more times a week.
How do we avoid scrabbling over allowed words, you may wonder? Our small Oxford dictionary is the arbiter. The evening ritual includes coffee and a slice of chocolate orange.
The bible is a wonderful world of words. Within this library of sixty six books is the story of God’s big plan to make sense of our lives - and to sort out our world.
Those bible words are much more than ink on paper or pixels on a screen. They paint upon the canvas of our mind a kaleidoscope of images. Like pictures at an exhibition we see ourselves, our relationships, circumstances and environments.
These wonderful, life enriching words take us on a journey into Life. A journey fraught with perils yet full of promise.
The peril-words warn and guide us. Those promise-words bring assurance and hope. And there’s one word which says it all: JESUS! He is The Lord’s love-word. Jesus will take us through the peril and into God’s promise. And not only towards the light at the end of the lockdown tunnel. The Lord’s love-word whispers into the gloomy corners of our current COVID-confined existence, “I am Light!”
Peril-words to ponder: Genesis 3. 4-6; Judges 21.25; Luke 6.46-49.
Promise-words for hope: Isaiah 44.1-6; Matthew 11.28-30; Colossians 1.13-23.
