Small Wonders

A trip to Western Australia brought Laurel to the famous Busselton Jetty - a 1.8 km timber-piled jetty stretching out into the Indian Ocean - the longest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. Initially built for practicality, the jetty is now a tourist destination and even features on postcards.The way it reaches out with such purpose is similar to prayer - an extension towards the eternal.But the main difference, of course, is the fact that we didn’t build the jetty between us and God. He did. But we still get to enjoy it. We can walk its length at any given moment and commune with Him.

In Romans 12, the Apostle Paul has a challenge for Christians:“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- His good, pleasing, and perfect will.”But where can we actually start with this renewal?

Along York Lane in the Sydney CBD are alcoves and recessed doorways set into the buildings.It was in one of these recessed doorways where a man named Karl used to live (or rather, sleep).Hundreds of people passed Karl every day - and sadly, in 2013, Karl died in his sleep, exposed on York Lane.However, in a remarkable postscript, his long-lost brother, who had been searching for Karl for decades, finally found him.And he brought him home."My son," the father said, "you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." - Gospel of Luke, Chapter 15

The gap between what an Ibis is made for and what it does in the city becomes very apparent once you see it in its natural habitat. The Ibis is made to roam marshlands and use their elegant bills to dig for crayfish and mussels - not for scraps of rubbish in bins. But like these birds, we also often lose sight of the type of world we are made for and how we are meant to be. We can’t find the answer to who we are meant to be by looking within ourselves, but we can find it in God.‘Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love’ the Psalmist writes in Psalm 51. ‘Cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be clean … create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.’

No matter how well things may seem, everyone faces times of testing where every day can feel like wading through thick sludge. But these challenges can also sometimes be, like molasses, unexpectedly sweet.

God is never far off - we can talk to him at any time. But sometimes, strange as it may seem, casting our anxieties on the creator of all things feels like the hardest thing in the world to do. 

So much of our world is built on hierarchical relationships.If one is of more excellent status, importance, or class than another, that can dictate so much of their interactions.A meeting with the late Henry Kissinger two decades ago brought this reality into focus for our host - and reminded her how this is anathema to the Creator of all things.The One true God laid down his life for all, for the slave and the free.

A verse in Hebrews reminds us that when we help a passerby, there might be more going on than we expect."Don't forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing, some have unwittingly entertained angels."However, what if angels have entertained us?What if we've encountered these celestial warriors and never realised?

More often than not, libraries collect and organise works of human creativity, intellect and industry.They are repositories of finished works.Books and recordings, films and magazines and many more - all discrete units of human creation.Archives, in contrast, provide us with the backdrop to the works, the settings, the background, and the working out of ideas from which a job may have come.

Welcome to a new season of Small Wonders!This is the first of a two-part series on the power of words.People read for different reasons.For some people, reading is work; for others, it's a hobby.Sometimes, reading can cause something within us to shift; we might go from wanting to read to needing to read. Our lives can suddenly - unexpectedly - become intertwined with the words on the page - and our experiences become things we might feel the need to share with authors we've never met.

Welcome to the final episode of season 3 of Small Wonders!A new year approaches - and for many, a new set of resolutions.Reading, going to the gym, travelling, lifestyle changes: all of us have a “possible self” that we strive towards.It turns out we’ve been making New Year resolutions for a very long time - at least 4,000 years in fact, according to ancient Babylonian records.Humans have always pursued personal growth.We’ve also spent millennia breaking New Year resolutions.However, it's not as dire as you might think: statistics show that most people who make resolutions keep at least part of them.The notion of the possible self is often related to both hopes - and fears - for the future.Hope and fear: the possible is connected to them both.The possible self is also a theme in the Bible, but a possible self is firmly reliant on Him through whom all things are possible.The way to the best possible self - the eternal one - comes through the humble servant, encountered in the Gospels."Going a little farther, (Jesus) fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Matthew 26: 39

The Summerbell Window - a beautiful stained glass window - sits in the Holy Trinity Church in Millers Point, Sydney.It's not like the other windows: it shows a stormy sea, with Jesus calming the tempest.It commemorates the loss of the Yarra Yarra - a steamer captained by William Geoge Summerbell, the namesake of the window - which disappeared on the morning of the 15th of July 1877, after encountering a terrible storm off the coast of Newcastle.Witness to the tragedy was Williams's father, Thomas.It was the following year that the Summerbell Window was erected in Holy Trinity Church.Jesus didn't calm this storm, nor did He walk on water that morning.The window itself acknowledges this."Save me Oh God, for the waters have come into my soul."The storms we face are real, and the grief we encounter can be like an unrelenting flood.A storm at sea can bring about an internal storm of pain.But knowledge of the truth - of God - can help us face this storm in a new light. The Psalms attest to this.Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths,where there is no foothold.I have come into the deep waters;the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help;my throat is parched.My eyes fail,looking for my God.Yet at the same time:I will praise God’s name in songand glorify him with thanksgiving.This will please theLord more than an ox,more than a bull with its horns and hoovesThe poor will see and be glad—you who seek God, may your hearts live!The Lord hears the needy and does not despise his captive people.Psalm 69: 1-3, 30-33

We will always work for food. The question is - which food are we working for?"Daily bread" has become a well-worn idiom; we all need it to get by, and without it, life wouldn't be possible.However, such a simple phrase fails to capture the complexity of actually finding daily bread.From the wheat harvesters to produce the bread, to the toil of workers to earn money to buy enough of it, much of what we do is in search of ways to provide daily bread.Throughout history, the price of bread has reflected stability.The more expensive the dough, the more unrest in society.Bread is important. It is life-giving. But it isn't the life-giver.We will always work for bread. But what type of bread are we seeking?The one where we work, and hunt, and scavenge and scrounge around for whatever crusts we can find? Or for the one that is given to us, the one sent by God. The true bread of life. The only daily bread we will ever need? "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval."Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."John 6: 27-28, 35

Transfer of Learning: To take something from one context and apply it in another.For many teachers, this is the goal of their job; to impart specific knowledge to students that they can use in the wider world.However, the transfer of learning isn't about just getting things right - it's about being able to get things wrong too.Researchers have found getting it wrong can yield a greater transfer of learning.To focus on only being right is to limit ourselves - shut ourselves off from amazing possibilities.The best learning occurs when we know what is right and what is wrong.The Apostle Paul writes about this to his "dear son" Timothy in the New Testament.Paul was willing to be treated as wrong for his answer - even though it was the right one.The transfer of learning that goes the farthest is not learning only for learning’s sake, but one that pursues the truth, specifically as communicated in this letter, the truth of God."… continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which can make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,  so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3: 14-17

Do you believe in ghosts? You should. The chances are, you are one.According to a Yougov poll conducted in 2021, roughly 40% of people polled believe in the traditional sort of ghost - a spirit that shows up and haunts a person or place. And almost 20% of those polled believe that they’ve had an encounter with such a ghost.But Laurell Moffatt has her eyes trained on a different kind of ghost - a more current type, which is almost the complete opposite of the traditional phantom. Ghosts these days don’t show up, instead, we use the term ‘to ghost’ to describe the actions of the living who decide to disappear from someone’s life. In another poll about the experience of being ghosted, roughly the same percentage of people who say they believe in ghosts - 40% - have been ghosted by a friend. Other data suggests that this number climbs significantly for those in romantic relationships, with 60% saying they have been ghosted and 45% saying they’ve done the ghosting. That means not only are most of us likely to encounter a ghost - to be 'ghosted' so to speak - but there's a high degree of likelihood that we will ghost someone else at some stage in our lives.The question is, what effect does having so many ghosts running around have on society at large?LINKSLearn all about the supernatural beliefs of the average American here.And here are some thoughts on what to do if you are ghosted by a friend.

A small video caught the eye of Instagramers recently - one involving a whale and a kyak.A drone, hovering over the water at Bondi Beach, captured a person on a kyak paddling away, oblivious to the presence of a whale coasting along directly behind them.Laurel Moffatt reflects on the unique place the humpback whale occupies in Australian waters, and the way it treats the various oceans of the earth as rooms in a sprawling house. She also considers the place this particular humpback occupied in the life of that solitary kayaker. And in doing so, she finds a reflection of our sometimes incapacity to see the biggest things around us, and how an outside perspective is what we might need to see life's the most important ones.LINKSIf you'd like to hear more humpback whale song, we suggest you visit the Whale Trust.There's also lots more to learn about the humpback whales of Eastern Australia at the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.Laurell thoroughly recommends that you check out the original video of the drone, the whale and the kyak.And learn everything you need to know about the whale underwater day-spa here.

Take an ordinary piece of paper. Fold it. Fold it again. Then one more time. Then sit back and observe the beautiful creation you have made.Laurell Moffatt reflects on a life-long love of the Japanese paper art of origami.In it she finds connections to her childhood fascinations and the blueprints for fascinating machines, from the microscopic to the orbital.But with every fold a line of fracture is made. Damage. Stress. Fracture. Yet each exists for a purpose, for with each fold a flat piece of paper begins to take shape until it becomes what it is being folded to become. A frog, a crane, a swan. A face mask, a starshield, a microscopic surgeon. Point or no point, pain and suffering can be just as much a part of life as pleasure and joy. And if suffering in some form is part of what it means to be alive, whether we like that fact or not, it can help to know the reason for the suffering, or if that can’t be known, it helps to know that something good can come from pain. 

Many people learn to play an instrument when they're young.Sadly, most will give it up over time - and many will come to regret it.To become proficient at an instrument means to practise: to keep playing the same rudiments or scales over and over again.Practice is sometimes boring. It's often just an unexciting part of the day. But practice isn't what makes perfect - it's what makes possible.Repetition is key to practice. If you want to know how to do something, you have to do it over and over again.This same idea of practice runs throughout the Hebrew scriptures.From the time of Moses through to Jesus, the Bible is full of encouragement to keep up the small, repetitive practice of following the commands of God and loving one another.Through constant daily practice, we will never forget the beauty of walking in step with the melody of the Lord.My teacher lies on the floor with a bad back off to the side of the piano.I sit up straight on the stool.He begins by telling me that every keyis like a different roomand I am a blind man who must learnto walk through all twelve of themwithout hitting the furniture.I feel myself reach for the first doorknob.Piano Lessons Stanza 1, Billy Collins

Many of us see the ocean as an immense blue desert; something to be crossed to see loved ones.It covers nearly 140 million square miles of our planet and can seem to many like an unfathomable, stormy tempest. A single drop seems completely insignificant.Perhaps it's for that reason - it's vastness - that we also cast our rubbish into the ocean.But seeing it only in terms of its size, as a place of stormy chaos, or just a dumping ground, is reductive. It dismisses the ocean rather than engages with it. Things are changing. As one mile of the ocean is cleaned at a time - one drop, if you will - marine life explodes back into being.What was previously lost, is once again found.What if this fearful, stormy sea is actually something to be nurtured, not just traversed? Seen as a reminder of all that is sacred about life, where even one simple drop can be so life-giving? The scriptures point to the ocean as the ultimate display of God's power, creativity - and love. Maybe it's time we re-imagined the Ocean, and allowed ourselves to see in it the reflection of the Creator."How many are your works, Lord!In wisdom you made them all;the earth is full of your creatures.There is the sea, vast and spacious,teeming with creatures beyond number—living things both large and smallThere the ships go to and fro,and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there."Psalm 104: 24-26 

Laurel Moffatt returns with Season 3 of Small Wonders. You're invited to join her on an exploration of the unnoticed and the seemingly unimportant in search of life’s lessons, at the hands of the creator.In this episode, Laurel ponders the wonders of spiders are just that - spiders, through and through. They are what they're made to be, down to their very core. Might it be the same for us humans? That we too are reflections of something greater, and we can't be who we're meant to be without it?"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit" - 2 Corinthians 3: 18