The first time I went on a flume was with one of my daughters on holiday. They had become the rage well after my trips to the open air and chilly swimming pool of my boyhood. This one was in an inside pool, and heated!
But pondering the flume from the top, I'm glad I had my daughter to focus on. Hold onto her, and keep holding on to her - that was all that mattered.
So, down we went, and it was great! With a huge splash at the bottom.
The new year can be like that - huge uncertainties ahead. Who knows what is round the bend? But the difference is that we are the ones being held. We do not hold onto Christ - he holds onto us.
The gospel stories of Christmas and Epiphanies are all about new beginnings: a birth, a child, first trip to the Temple, the anxieties of new parents, magi seeking a strange birth, a new political rival perhaps, new encounters.... All sorts of people encounter him and it is the beginning of a new story, a new adventure for each one of them.
Each of them in their way must have felt as if they were going down a flume, with its twists, turns and uncertainties. Mary, Joseph, the magi, John the Baptist, Nathanael. Epiphany introduces to the first steps of disciples as they encounter Jesus, as they enter the flume of discipleship.
John's gospel focuses on the words, Come and See. That is what each person had the opportunity to do. Each had the opportunity to walk the journey ahead with Christ.
Some would struggle or fight against it. So it was for Herod. He wanted to come and kill. He saw Jesus as a threat. But even he could not escape the one who encounters each of us. Jesus escaped him (to Egypt). And Jesus would escape the latter day Herod through death itself into the everlasting journey of resurrection.
We do not need to hold onto Christ. He is already holding thee and me. This is what Joseph discovered as he was warned by the angel and finally settled in Nazareth (Mary's, not his, home town, as I read it).
But we do need to realise who it is that holds us, and that he does hold us. And we can respond to him. A child who trust to their mother or father in the flume of life is going to be happier and safer than one who struggles.
But pondering the flume from the top, I'm glad I had my daughter to focus on. Hold onto her, and keep holding on to her - that was all that mattered.
So, down we went, and it was great! With a huge splash at the bottom.
The new year can be like that - huge uncertainties ahead. Who knows what is round the bend? But the difference is that we are the ones being held. We do not hold onto Christ - he holds onto us.
The gospel stories of Christmas and Epiphanies are all about new beginnings: a birth, a child, first trip to the Temple, the anxieties of new parents, magi seeking a strange birth, a new political rival perhaps, new encounters.... All sorts of people encounter him and it is the beginning of a new story, a new adventure for each one of them.
Each of them in their way must have felt as if they were going down a flume, with its twists, turns and uncertainties. Mary, Joseph, the magi, John the Baptist, Nathanael. Epiphany introduces to the first steps of disciples as they encounter Jesus, as they enter the flume of discipleship.
John's gospel focuses on the words, Come and See. That is what each person had the opportunity to do. Each had the opportunity to walk the journey ahead with Christ.
Some would struggle or fight against it. So it was for Herod. He wanted to come and kill. He saw Jesus as a threat. But even he could not escape the one who encounters each of us. Jesus escaped him (to Egypt). And Jesus would escape the latter day Herod through death itself into the everlasting journey of resurrection.
We do not need to hold onto Christ. He is already holding thee and me. This is what Joseph discovered as he was warned by the angel and finally settled in Nazareth (Mary's, not his, home town, as I read it).
But we do need to realise who it is that holds us, and that he does hold us. And we can respond to him. A child who trust to their mother or father in the flume of life is going to be happier and safer than one who struggles.
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