Thought for the Day – Monday 27th April
Today’s reading is 1 Peter 1: 17-23:
If you invoke as Father the one
who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent
fear during the time of your exile. You know that you were ransomed from the
futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like
silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb
without defect or blemish. He was destined before the foundation of the world,
but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. Through him you have
come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that
your faith and hope are set on God. Now that you have purified your souls by
your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one
another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable but
of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.
I decided during this time of shielding to re-read a book which had been
my first year, first term reader at High School way back in 1968, a book which
I had never really got to grips with then, indeed, which I never really
understood thinking it all a bit weird with archaic language!
Anyway that book was ‘The Water
Babies’ by Charles Kingsley, who only now do I discover was in fact an
ordained minister following the school of thought known as ‘Christian Socialism’
which advocated the social and political application of Christian teaching. So
in the Victorian times in which he lived, he spent his life campaigning for
things like better education for girls and the improving of the living
conditions of the working class. So he was quite a radical of his time and he
did love his rural parish in Eversley in Hampshire where it is said he put his
beliefs into practice by spending his life as a devoted minister to the poor
and uneducated of his parish.
Knowing this, as an adult, already helped to make the book make more
sense to me for it is all about Tom a little chimney sweep boy – the one sent
up the inside of chimneys in Victorian times by the sweep – who is mistreated
by his master Mr Grimes. Meeting an old woman one day on their way to a job at
a great house (as often happens in fairy stories!) Tom’s life is changed
forever and without spoiling the story Tom eventually drowns but by the grace
of this old woman Tom becomes a water baby and the book then unfolds his story
as a water baby.
However, what I didn’t realise all those years ago is that the story is
actually about redemption and salvation. Never having experienced a ‘good life’
Tom had to learn to be a good water baby and not a mischievous one, he had to
learn to think of others first and ultimately he had to do something he did not
want to do but had to do - to face his fears and go and redeem Mr Grimes too –
which he did after a long arduous journey to the Other-end-of–Nowhere!
In the book though there are two ‘fairies’ who kind of walk with Tom
throughout his journey to redemption and they are Mrs.Doasyouwouldbedoneby and Mrs.
Bedonebyasyoudid, the former the good fairy and the latter the not so good.
It seemed to me that together these two were responsible for purifying Tom’s soul so that he would
have genuine mutual love and love others deeply from his heart – even
the one whom he feared the most Mr Grimes.
Great names, almost like two sides of the same person (which they were
in the book!) but what wonderful sentiments – even for us in life today – ‘Do
as you would be done by’ and ‘Be done by as you did’!
If we can take the former to heart and try to avoid the latter then
surely we too can be redeemed, be born anew through the living and enduring word of God.
Prayer
Loving Lord,
We praise you for your great mercy in giving us new birth into a living
hope. Be with us as we reflect on our lives, on how we live out our lives, on
how we treat others in life and help us to set our faith and hope on you that
we may develop genuine mutual love and so love others deeply from our hearts. In
Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
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