Gabions

I learnt a new word yesterday: ‘Gabion’.

Gabions are cages filled with rocks, used in landscaping… on the TV show ‘Garden Rescue’ last night when creating a garden… along the seafront in Lowestoft where new beach huts are being constructed.

Gabions are strong, tidy, immovable, secure…

Musing… we want strong, secure ‘gabion-lives’…

Yesterday’s news was full of ‘Partygate’ and Sue Gray’s report…

Prime Minister Johnson: ‘I want to say sorry. I’m sorry for the things we simply didn’t get right and also sorry for the way that this matter has been handled…’

Cabinet minister Michael Gove: We should show ‘Christian forgiveness’…

Our MP, Peter Aldous: ‘After a great deal of soul-searching, I have reached the conclusion that the Prime Minister should resign…’

My Christian faith’s big on forgiveness and second chances…? Where’s ‘gabion’?

Friends in the last 24 hours…

• …Paul and his wife travelling 270 miles across the country to their daughter who needs their help and support
• …Kate’s husband is sick in hospital with no clear diagnosis or prognosis
• …Kath’s ex-husband is making life difficult for her and their daughters
• …Derek’s daughter with additional needs causes family problems

This is not strong, tidy, gabion-life with gabion-decisions.

The answer, my Christian friends tell me, to a ‘non-gabion-life’ is a ‘gabion-faith’; the Bible is the ‘God’s instruction manual for life’. Gabion help!

I’m reading Leviticus. This morning: ‘…(the priest) shall remove all the fat from the bull of the sin offering – the fat that covers the inner parts… both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the covering of the liver…’ chapters about ceremonial sacrifice… then instructions on food, childbirth, haircuts, stoning, bodily discharges… Hardly ‘gabion’!

Musing… St Paul: ‘I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak I am strong.’

…The Jesus who was strong when he was weak calls others to be weak so that they can be strong. The paradox… My life’s gabion when it’s non-gabion!