We got the story quilt over us and snuggled up in the sitting room for a few pages from Arthur Ransome's The Big Six. I guess I was drawn to it in the library because we're doing a Rivers topic at school, and I was intrigued by the whole Swallows and Amazons thing. I find myself shaking my head at when The Big Six was written (1940) - it's surprisingly fresh and pacy, and gripping (I am just a sucker for pike fishing and youngsters just building a boat and heading off for days on end and smoking eels and...) No wonder the BBC are set to make a film or two, trying to find a franchise to fill the gap now that Harry Potter's finished.
And Where's Wally has turned out to be a good way for us to pass the time, say, waiting for the bathroom to clear while one or other child does teeth cleaning, or long car journeys. So the rainy day list of indoor things to make and do now includes making our own Where's Wally page. We started with good intentions to draw lots of stuff, but it was A3 paper and after 15 minutes we bailed out and used photocopied chunks of the original book, along with photos of ourselves.
We got some images from the Where's Wally website, but we checked out the Where's Waldo website too just in case it had some snazzy stuff - but they're both the same.
See, in the US, Wally's called Waldo. I knew that already because a while back I'd read John Ortberg's book God is Closer than You Think. (Because you need to Get out of the Boat and Get to Know Him.) He uses the image to contrast the Michaelangelo God-Adam-finger picture on the Sistene Chapel, and to highlight a paradox about how hard it can feel sometimes to feel God's presence, given that He's everywhere.
Where’s Waldo—he’s right around the corner; he’s lurking where you least expect him; he’s right there on the page; he’s anywhere people are willing to see the whole world with eyes incapable of anything but wonder and with a tongue fluent only in praise. He’s closer than you think.
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I got an email today about the possible art project on the security barriers at the GEC recreation ground (see below). It'd been forwarded through various layers of the Council's structures, and by the end it seems like they want to take it a step forward. Which was good to hear.
And I liked what one member of staff had said, just one line, as she forwarded it up the chain of command. It said:
There is hope in the world.
Now, hear me right. It's not about me. I'm not the hope. I only point to it. Or I at least carry it. In the way that Jesus says I am the Light of the World and then says to his followers You are the Light of the World. Tag, you're it. Go and do likewise. (Actually, I got this from a Bill Johnson talk. I don't pray I must become less or None of me, all of You, Father. He loves us to bits! More like All of me, covered by all of you.) For me, it's about getting God into the everyday. Or if he's in the everyday already, then making Him a bit clearer. A few pictures, a few words, an email here and there, and people I've never met are feeling more hopeful.
And for me, that stuff is just like finding Wally's cheeky little stripey jumper, right behind a dragon or a drainpipe.
Ah, there He is.
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