This famous plane is a Westland Lysander used by Special Operation Executive during WW2. It is on display at the Duxford Museum. Aircraft buffs will also identify the Mosquito tail, a Concorde, and the Saunders-Roe TSR2 which was cancelled just before production began (it was extremely advanced for its time, and VERY expensive). You may also recognise the nose of a Canberra… Enough nostalgia.
Why post a Lysander photo? At our Renew Wellbeing group, we run a modelling table for “boys of all ages” (i.e., enthusiasts ) who enjoy making kits (mostly aircraft) from Airfix, Tamiya, Revell, and a few newer manufacturers.
One of our members handed me a model, still bagged, asking if I would be kind enough to put it together. “Of course!” said I, expansively. I really should have checked it first… because when I opened the bag, there were NO instructions and many of the parts had been removed from the sprues. Cue Sherlock Starling. I have constructed the model through “wisdom” and experience- and it’s a success! No bits missing, none left over, and it even looks like a Lysander!
Conclusion? It’s possible to muddle through with a model.
Now think of trying to muddle through life with no instructions. Tricky, huh? We don’t come with manuals, pdf files, or even a picture. Somehow we need to find purpose, good health, maybe a life-partner and friends. Little kids change so quickly: the best parents in the world don’t get the parenting right all the time. Making choices and ethical decisions… deciding on education, work, hobbies, how to budget, how to navigate illness or loss…
Mistakes, regrets, and failures are part of being human. So too the joys of love, successes and triumphs. It’s a big messy package!
I have been following Jesus Christ for over 55 years; and have found values and morals to live by. Not just in a book (not even the Bible!) but in a growing relationship of knowing and being known: and with the help and (mostly) encouragement from other Christians. Far from perfect, and faith still has mysteries and challenges.
This afternoon, I saw the leaves dancing in a brisk breeze. The tree was swaying, and the leaves “vibrated” in the moving air. It was compellingly lovely: and I think gives a good picture of how “the Church” is enlivened by the Holy Spirit. Each individual leaf belongs to the tree; and relates to the other leaves, weaving glorious patterns of movement.
Add that dynamic to being a student of the Bible, and a vision is created: instructions/narrative/truth written in the many parts of Scripture, animated by the vigorous stimuli of the Living Breath of the Lord. But it works.
Fanciful? Maybe. I’m becoming a “little model” of Jesus. I am learning of God and His ways, learning love and patience, and finding guidance through a complicated world. I hope that by the time I’m finished, my life will be recognisably Jesus-like. These words are MY instructions:-
“But you, man/woman of God, avoid all these things. Strive for righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. Run your best in the race of faith, and win eternal life for yourself; for it was to this life that God called you when you firmly professed your faith before many witnesses. Before God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who firmly professed his faith before Pontius Pilate, I command you to obey your orders and keep them faithfully until the Day when our Lord Jesus Christ will appear.” 1 Timothy 6 v11-14.
The Reflectionary 