It's just lovely in Glasgow this morning, and I'm pausing to savour the moment.

The grass sparkles with white frost.

The sky is a clear pale blue.

From my front windows, the Campsie Fells are seen in full relief beyond the skyline of the city.

And from the rear the south side glistens in the morning sun.

Clouds of chilled breath rise from pedestrians and motorists scrape windscreens.

The trees in red-gold-green-yellow-brown array defy the inevitable one day more

Children trail to school and parents chivvy them onwards.

On a morning like this

There are dances to be danced

Songs to be sung

And a creator to be praised.

Hmm, so which picture should I have as my blog picture?

For now it's a rather ham-fisted composite of four photos, made with very basic software, reflecting how I have looked over the last month or so.  Granted one was taken before I left Dibley, but most of my photos are 'formal' so hair tied back and I wanted one of the few with it loose.

They're all me and they're all not me - no one of them captures more than a moment in time, and maybe that's the point.

Until I decide on something else, or get a better composite, this will have to do.

My penultimate service on the Bible will, I think, involve a series of shorter explorations picking up a few ideas around context (textual, sitz im leben and our own), proof-texting and the handling of tricky passages, all done under the heading of 'doilies and confetti.'

But here's the tricky bit - how I talk about proof-texting without, er, proof-texting?  I have a nice little intra-Biblical illustration, James contra Paul on use of a verse from Genesis, but then isn't that a proof-text approach to criticise proof-texts...?  Oh it's tricky!  But fun.  Tricky and fun is good.

I am working on my reflection for Sunday's service.  It won't be a full blown sermon because I haven't allowed enough time for one, preferring instead to hear scripture read in many different, unfamiliar languages by some of the folk who are part of the diverse community at the Gathering Place - we will have Twi, Yoruba and Swahili for certain and hopefully Korean as well as Canadian French.  That's exciting.

Checking Bible Society information reveals that there are more than 4000 languages yet to have any part of the Bible translated into them, that whilst 1 in 6 people worldwide cannot read, audio-Bibles are available in less than 3% of languages, braille Bibles are only available in 'major' languages and as for sign language, that is only just beginning in the UK (don't know about other countries).  Add to that the numerous nations where Bible reading/owning is a crime.

Now look at the set text - the Nazareth manifesto (Luke 4:16ff) and start linking that to Jesus as the incarnate Word, the church as the Body of Christ, so the word enfleshed in our own day, and see where that takes you...

A lighter moment from yesterday evening.

One of the readings was Daniel 1: 11 - 16 which was chosen by the speaker because it had been used at a course he attended as the earliest know record of clinicla trial...

Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah,  "Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink.  Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see."  So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.

At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food.  So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.