My first ever collaboration post - how exciting! :-D T his photo was taken by my friend Michael Nyatigi, whose photography work you can see more of, over on his photostream website, and I offer a reflection on it and on the theme for this first week of advent: hope. On the first Sunday of Advent, we light a candle as a symbol of Hope.
Advent is a time for hope; expectant and prayerful hope, confident in the love of God made present with us always because he came down to earth for us. It is a time for provocative possibilities that take us beyond the world as it is, to the world as it could be - no, should be! A place of healing, restoration, justice and peace; wholeness, completeness and life in its fullness with nothing to detract from it or hold back from us. It is a time for us to take hold of that confidence and boldness brought from that hope we have in a faithful, wonderful God, and use it to "walk in the light of Lord" (Isa 2.4), even when we are surrounded by darkness. A time when we ask ourselves: how will we experience peace in this busy build-up to Christmas; how will our Advent be holy and whole-making; what behaviours do we need to change to be part of the peaceful world that God intends? We need to live intentionally; demonstrating the love of God we know to be true. As people living in the hope of God, we can depend on God to provide the light we need. To shine like the sun, bringing warmth and comfort and light, after the cold, dark night. And if we can live like the truth of Advent IS true; that Emmanuel - God-with-us - broke into the world and lives with and in and through and for us today, then we will see him shining and coming to us in every encounter, as we prayerfully wait and hope for it to come more. "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (Jn 1.5)
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Over this last week I have been lucky enough to visit Nice (in the South of France!!!) for my job. Other than my complete and utter lack of ability to speak or comprehend even the most basic French, everything was so exciting! Having never been anywhere in Europe before (other than the UK) I was excited by the buses that had multiple doors which the driver could choose which to open to let people on or off (which I have since been told also exist in London…); by the vibrant winter sun still high in the sky and making it shorts and t-shirt weather by England-standards!; by the apricot jam and the tea pillows they gave us in the hotel (no joke; they were literal cotton tea pillows with fancy looking chunks of tea leaves inside them, rather than tea bags); by the walks along the promenade, and the fancy sweets in the sweet shop, and the people roller-blading around, and the service in the fancy restaurants, and the art - oh the art! - in the streets, in the shops, in the galleries and museums! It was all just incredible, and it made me realise that there are so many places in this world I still want to explore!
But it also opened my eyes to simple and pointless injustices which happen all around us. This year I'm working part time as a personal assistant to a lady with muscular atrophy, and so this is why I was in Nice, as she was going on holiday with her mum and sister, and I was going along to assist her in all the physical ways that she needs assistance in. Despite the fact that everything had been pre-arranged and we were travelling with her very specific power-chair, which is designed to support her in a position in which she is not in pain and can breathe, the staff at the airport as we arrived were not prepared and hadn't brought the chair up to the right place for us to pick her up and put her into just off the plane. Instead, they sent the chair through to the bagging reclaim and refused any of the options we gave for us to build it and bring it back to the plane, because they needed to get the next passengers on that plane and get away as soon as possible. So instead, they supplied a wholly unsuitable chair and got angry at us when we tried to explain we couldn't use it, until we were unable to do anything else. We were all really shaken by this experience, and the lady I assist was injured and, really, just scared to go home because she didn't want to be hurt again. Thankfully, she is incredibly intelligent and studied Law at Oxford university, and so she was able to communicate to the airline that what happened was not OK and there would be consequences to what happened and that it absolutely could not happen on the way home as well. Consequently, we had an amazing flight home, and it was just so simple for everybody to do the things they were supposed to do and work together with us, actually listening to what we needed and what the lady was physically able to use. Why that couldn't have just happened the first time, I don't know. And it actually made me really angry. I don't normally get angry - so it really surprised me. But if that had happened to someone who wasn't as intelligent, or even someone who just hadn't had the educational experience that she'd had and known that what had happened was not allowed to have happened - they'd just accept it. They'd just accept that, because they have a physical disability, they get hurt when they try to do things. And then they just probably wouldn't do things like that. They'd think going on holiday just wasn't something that they can do. Why are we allowed to tell - through the way we set up society - a whole group of people that they can't do something. Yes, sometimes it's more difficult; yes, sometimes it takes longer; and yes, sometimes it takes more working together to work out how something can be done - but generally, that something can be done. People shouldn't be forced into a position of only living part-of-a-life just because others can't be bothered to hear what they need and try to offer that. And I don't just mean with foreign holidays, because many people can't go on foreign holidays for many reasons - but it also happens in educational opportunities, in job prospects, so on. We make the world operate for people like "us" - but what about "them", whoever the "them" might be to you? |
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AuthorI'm a recent Cambridge Theology graduate now studying for a Masters in Biblical Studies and blogging about all sorts of things! I'm interested in faith, Church, theology, social action, the great outdoors and being creative, and all of those things - along with many more - come through in my posts!
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