So, I'm walking to church and I see a familiar looking van from this company (I can only find truck images)

Which makes me smile because I used to see them all the time - they are based half a mile from where I used to live.

So, I'm in the supermarket at Piccadilly station in Manchester buying bottled water (among other things) and it is this:

Which makes me smile because I can see where it comes from (allegedly) from my living room window.

So, the world is small.

Most NT parables are not explained.  Jesus left it to the hearers to work it out.  So the parable of the ducks, so the mother eagle.

Like all metaphors and models they are imperfect and pushed too far they collapse, but they are offered as they are, to do with as you wish.

Here is one of my images for pastoral leadership

When eagle chicks reach a certain age, it is time for them to learn to fend for themselves.  The father eagle goes off and does whatever father eagles do, leaving the mother to teach her chicks to fly.

She nudges the chicks out of the nest onto the ledge and then with a suitable shove launches them into the air.  Bewildered and confused, they plummet earthwards and the mother swoops down, catches them on her wings and flies back up to safety.  She then launches them off again and again repeating the process until they finally work out that flapping their wings is a good idea.

As the air rushes past them and as they soar skywards the eagle chicks discover who they are and why they were born... the mother's work, in this respect at least, is now done.

So this is my version of Stuart Blythe's version of Tony Campolo's parable of the ducks...

The duck students were excited, today was the long promised visit of Professor Aylesbury Mallard, distinguished scholar of duck anatomy, and she was going to give a lecture on the wing - not that is, that she was going to make it up as she went along, it was a lecture about the wing.

So, after waddling around the detritus of their student flat gathering pencils and paper, the students waddled down the road to University of the West of Duckland and into K block where the lecture was due to be held.  The room filled, and the ducks eagerly waited for the lecture to begin.  In waddled the professor, laden with with handouts that explained the minutest details of the anatomy of the wing.  Powerpoints showed the layout of bones and tendons, feathers were passed round to be examined and admired.  The ducks frantically scribbled or typed notes, amazed at all she had to say.

The lecture neared its end and the professor lowered her voice.  Our student ducks craned forward, eager to hear what she said, but could not quite catch it.  The ducks at the front leaned nearer and the professor spoke again, whispering something important.  Soon the mesage spread as, row by row, the students joined in the cry, 'fly, fly!'  Soon the air was filled with loud quacking as every duck joined the chorus.

Then the clock chimed the hour, the lecture ended, and the ducks waddled out the leacture room and back up the hill to their flat discussing what they had learned...

So, the 07:10 ex-Glasgow for Manchester.  Reserved seat, electric socket but no wi-fi on that rail network, still got my sermon finished.  By the time we reached Lancaster the train was packed, standing room only.  A young man got on and stood patiently in the aisle.  At Preston several people left and he got a seat.  Looking up he saw a woman about my age, 'are you going far?' he asked.  'Manchester' she replied.  'Then have my seat,' he said, and proceded to stand all the way to Manchester himself.  What annoyed me was that the woman didn't even say 'thank you.'  The youf of today?  Well this one can teach the rest of us a thing or three.

Now online at John Rylands Univeristy Library - free wi-fi for registered students - hardly recognised the place which has gone all trendy since my last visit: beanbags in the entrance area!!  Machines selling drinks and crisps and NOISE.  Ah well, off now to the relative quiet of Blue 3 (or whatever it might have been re-branded) and some theology books.  Hopefully the youfs up there will be reasonably quiet.

Great way to spend the day - two cities I love and sun shining in each.