From Rudolf and Santa to Slinky Malinki and the proverbial Pukeko in a Punga Tree, there’s a Christmas picture book for everyone. In most bookshops, though, Baby Jesus is hidden behind Grinches, trains and elves. If you’re in the market for Christmas books for kids that tell the story of God coming into the world as […]
A warm welcome to Stacey, who wrote this excellent guest post – thanks so much! Stacey is a meat-eating, raw-milk advocating, pro-vaccine-ing, long-haired, homeschooling, MSc-degree-holding, quilting, left-voting, mystery-novel-loving, arm-chair-permaculturing, chicken-owning, fair-trade-chocolate-eating, hippie-ish Christian mother of 3 (going on 4), who just had fish and chips for dinner and whose children are, (right now as I […]
Yay! Advent is my favourite season in the church calendar, and it’s almost here! Actually, Lent was pretty cool this year, too, with our superduper Lent with Kids series, but the inspiration for that came from all the fun and surprisingly helpful things we did at home during Advent. So here we are! I […]
We don’t know for sure that Mary was a breastfeeding mother, but it seems a reasonable inference. In a time before formula and modern medical care, she would have had few other options, and if she or someone else hadn’t breastfed Jesus he would almost certainly have died in infancy, from malnourishment or water-borne disease, […]
Why a ‘sacrament’? The church has long taught that there are certain special moments where God is particularly present in our world. The ritual of baptism, the sharing of a communion meal. Different church traditions have argued about how many there are, but that seems to me to be a nonsensical question. God is particularly […]
I’ve been binge-watching Nashville lately, and here’s a song from the show that has stayed with me. It’s called ‘A Life That’s Good‘ and is performed in the show by a few different combos of characters, but here, by teenager Lennon Stella and co-star Charles Esten. The following clip is her and her sister (both […]
It was my privilege and delight last weekend to accompany one of my favourite little girls and her daddy on her very first experience of a fancy stage show: a travelling London production of Annie. What a treat (for me as much as her)! I got to take her to the balcony and look at all the […]
On the Thursday night of the first Easter week, an unnamed woman had a dream about Jesus: While Pilate was sitting in the judgment hall, his wife sent him a message: “Have nothing to do with that innocent man, because in a dream last night, I suffered much on account of him.” Matthew 27:19 […]
We’re now in Holy Week, where Lent morphs into Easter. In my house we’ll continue lighting our Lenten candles and saying the sentences about Jesus that go with them, but there are plenty of other special things coming along this week that can take their own place in household spirituality. So here’s a bunch of […]
This is an all-in-one post for Week 6 of our Lent with Kids plan. To fill in some background, start here. You can also see the series index here. Charles Dickens could have been writing about Palm Sunday: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of […]