On Sunday morning, Karen Wilk, one of the pastors at The River, the church we attend, had a great illustration of faith. She invited a couple of the little children up to the front where she showed them two mouse traps. She had one of the kids spring one of the traps with a pencil, just so they would see how mouse traps work. They were suitably startled and impressed. Then she invited the other child to try to get a loonie out of the other trap. Nicolas, being at least as bright as that chimp we’ve seen on the cover of TIME Magazine, initially tried to do it with the pencil. But when Karen said he had to use his bare hand, without a moment’s hesitation, he confidently reached in and took the loonie. Her point? His faith in her, together with her faith in him, gave him the confidence to take the risk. Cool! But there was another point being illustrated that might have been missed.
When little Nick reached for the loonie, we in the congregation, including me, held our breath as though we really imagined he might get his fingers snapped. Admittedly, we didn’t know then that Karen had rigged the trap so it couldn’t spring. But why didn’t we know this? Did we really think she would risk this little guy’s fingers for the sake of her children’s story? As an exasperated Jesus used to say, “O, you of little faith”.
The second thing I want to share is that last night my wife, Suzanne, and I went to hear Steve Bell, a singer/song-writer we’ve been enjoying since the 90s; back when he appeared before audiences of 50. This was the last venue in a cross country tour with local symphonies. The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra was amazing, the Winspear Centre fabulous, and Steve Bell? well, he was Steve Bell, the reason we went. He began the concert with one of my favourites, Burning Ember.
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