the Jesus t'ings

Our year in England is not yet over, but we recently had the chance to return to Finland for a short visit. We were glad to spend time with one young family who used to come regularly to Junior Church.  After a day's outing together, the children asked whether they might come to our house and we ended up giving a spontaneous Yes. Big Brother found the toy drawer without delay, and settled down with its dominoes and a new card game. But Little Sister...

He saw the dust lying thick on everything, saw the cheerless, deserted look of the long-neglected house, and its narrow, meagre dimensions, its worn and shabby contents� and collapsed again on a hall-chair, his nose to his paws. 'O Ratty!' he cried dismally, 'why ever did I do it? Why did I bring you to this poor, cold little place, on a night like this?'

--Kenneth Grahame

Like the Mole in The Wind and the Willows, who remembers his home as being ready to step right back into, Little Sister seemed disappointed not to find our living room set up for Godly Play. With my permission (and my company) she set off for the attic, and began rummaging. Mother asked her several times what she was looking for, but she found it hard to articulate an answer. Finally, with perhaps a little frustration she cried, The Jesus tings!

It was not hard to find at least some of them, however, and she soon set about working with what we had found.

* in addition to the Holy Family, Little Sister 

is working with some World Communion

materials, Noah's ark, and the terra cotta 

stable which came with the figures we

originally used for our Holy Family (before 

acquiring the Finnish Godly Play set).