Hello Faith Pals, You will not have to water the garden this week! The blessing of rain. Now…I am not going to get too far ahead-next Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent- BUT I did want to say a little something about angels. I think you know I love angels. I have quite a number-most of them have come from friends, or from traveling, or buying in a shop or an op shop post Christmas (quite sad-angel rejects. I take them home so they are happy with the company, or host of angels). Now, I mentioned angels because this week I did have to go to Southland to buy singlets for David. I knew I could park close to Target-dash in-dash out, BUT in my rush to the check out, I passed the Christmas area. I thought, “Oh I will just have a quick check to see if there is an angel here” and there was. So I have named her my Covid-19 angel-a reminder of the year, and that God has not deserted us, and has sent many angels to us-earthly ones helping us through and I am sure others to support a weary heart or despondent spirit. Well this $5 Target angel is quite something. She is plump, quite chubby. She reminds me of a child in a primary school Nativity play: a bit of gold ribbon to pull in her dress, sequins stuck on to cardboard wings, and she is carrying a makeshift star on a pole-made me wonder if she is a hybrid, a cross between a fairy and an angel. Anyway, she is now home, surrounded by an assortment of angels-gracing the room with those fashioned from clothes pegs, from dried pasta, sequined sparkly ones, carved wooden ones, paper quill ones, pom pom angels, stitched ones, to serious ones modeled from glass, or china. Angels: messengers from God. Angels. Now, I have to tell you the story of Gabriel’s feather, long thought to be in a Spanish monastery, in El Escorial Palace near Madrid, Spain. The feather, rose-coloured, and of extraordinary beauty, was thought to be from a wing of the Archangel Gabriel. It was acquired sometime between 1563-1584 by King Philip 11. Apparently the Monastery of San Lorenzo at the palace no longer owns this relic. Could this feather have come from the quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno) of Central America, a bird of the Trogon family sacred to the Aztec and Maya Indians and famous for its plumage? But the prized wing and tail feathers of the male are green, not rose. Could it be from one of New Guinea’s birds of paradise (Family Paradisaeidae). Survivors of Ferdinand Magellan’s voyage around the world took back to Portugal skins of these birds obtained from the island’s inhabitants in 1522. Count Raggi’s bird of paradise (Paradisea raggiana) has rose-coloured plumes, which might account for the Gabriel feather. How appropriate if a feather once thought to be from an archangel of heaven proved to be from a bird of paradise! Now, a piece of useless, but fascinating information, that I have been meaning to put in one of these emails-and haven’t, so here it is: ‘The average cob of corn has eight hundred kernels arranged in sixteen rows.’ Who thinks to count these kernels? News: from Rob’s Aunty Elv, to say ‘thank you’ to everyone for your prayers for Jack’s recent surgery. Elv, we will keep praying for him (and for his family), because prayer is needed during his long recovery. Continue to keep Shirley Edwards and Margaret Wills in your prayers, as well as Alan and Fredrica, Rohini and Jaya, and Myrtle. ‘Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; out-do one another in showing honour. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.’ (Romans 12: 9-13) Trees and Towns. ‘In the Mojave desert, one often comes across those famous ghost towns that were built around the gold mines. They were abandoned when all the gold had been mined out. They had served their purpose and there was no reason for anyone to go on living there. When we walk through a forest, we see trees which, once they have served their purpose, have fallen. However, unlike ghost towns, their fall has opened up space for light to penetrate, they have enriched the soil and their trunks are covered in new vegetation. Our old age will depend on the way we have lived. We can either end up like a ghost town or like a generous tree, which continues to be important even after its fall.’ -Paulo Coelho Blessings and love, Barbara Virus-free. www.avg.com
