Now I have to swear you to secrecy if you are reading this in Dromara or in Moneyreagh because nobody is supposed to know it is me...... but..... well, if you promise not to tell, I shall let you in on what Ive been up to.
A few months ago I was introduced to Pinterest. For those of you who dont know about it , its a craft website where people share ideas for making things. Making all sorts of things using all sorts of skills. Sunday school teachers post their lesson ideas, grannies post their knitting patterns, artists show off their handiwork..... its just a website jam packed full of weird and wonderful, simple and complex, brilliant and easy things to do and make.
Once I discovered it I started trawling through to have a look at the sort of crafty things people were doing in their churches ( as in arts and crafty not as in devious and underhand !!) and I came across this.
Its a pebble. That's all. Just a simple painted pebble, but there is something really adorable about it isn't there? There was a story attached to the picture so I went to read and discovered that last Christmas a chap somewhere in England had the idea to paint some stones and leave them around his town in the run up to Christmas as a bit of fun with a serious point. He wanted to remind people what Christmas is all about. He painted about 300 stones and left them all over the place - in shops, at bus shelters, on top of gateposts and on windowledges. The people in his town got so caught up in the whole idea that he made it into the local paper.
Well, I looked at the stone and I read the story and I thought ' I could do that!!'
So I did.
Ive painted a couple of hundred ( the local beach just happens to produce beautifully smooth rounded pebbles) and on the 1st December I started leaving them out in the village. Every evening I sneak out with about ten in my pocket and some hay to set them into ( the guinea pigs dont seem to mind) and I leave them in the playpark and on benches and in shop doorways.
After a couple of days a friend ( who is one of the very few people who know what Im up to) told me that a child had run up to her at the school Christmas Fair and said , wide eyed, ' Did you know there are Baby Jesus's in the park??!' Then Ben ( who has helped me put some of them round the village) started coming home from school saying that all his friends were talking about finding Jesus. I told someone in church what I was doing and wondered if anyone from church would like to take some stones to put round Moneyreagh. They thought this was a great idea so last Sunday a box full of baby Jesus stones went to church and people took them away with them to plant round the village. Today I got a text from the minister to say that there was ' a bit of a buzz' going on about it all.
Meanwhile Ben came home from school saying that all his friends are now talking about having found Jesus and the teachers were starting to get a bit fed up with them bringing stones to school.
Ooops 
Tonight Santa arrived at Eurospar in Dromara and I went up to help out with some carol singing. With a pocket full of baby Jesus stones. Even managed to sneak one onto the shelves in the shop !! left one on the petrol pump, at the cashpoint and on a few windowledges and doorsteps on the way home. It feels exciting to be doing something secretly. And I know it is frivolous and just a bit of fun, but it really does give me a buzz when I hear that people are talking about having found Jesus. I choose to believe that it is a prophetic act. I've prayed over all the stones and asked that the people who find them will find the real thing at some point. That they will be blessed by finding them and that conversations will happen about the Jesus on the doorstep or at the post office or in the doctor's surgery. In Moneyreagh we have put up posters saying ' Have You Found Jesus?' with the church contact details. So that people know where to go if they want to find out more.
I shall let you know what happens. But if nothing else the church is quite excited about it. And its something everyone can be involved in from the oldest to the youngest. I'd better get painting more stones!!
Lord sometimes the simplest things have the biggest impact. I pray for the stones I have painted this Christmas and ask that each one would find its way to someone who really needs to know You. I pray that as the stones are found people would re-focus on the real meaning of this season and would stop to think about the fact that you came as a baby laid in straw. As the world pushes You further and further away from Christmas I ask that you would continue to give the church creative ways of bringing truth and light and hope. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment