Quote

 The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

~ George Bernard Shaw

Tough on grime

Every time I see this my mind goes, "Tough on the causes of grime."

The power of a slogan!

New Testament money (part 2) - updated

 You'll need to read part 1 for this to make sense.

Some examples:

Judas betrayed Jesus 

for 30 pieces of silver - that's £3,000

Parable of the talents

He gave them 5, 2 and 1 talents - £50,000, £20,000, and £10,000 respectively. Not just a few pounds!

Parable of the two debtors 

One was forgiven a debt of 500 denarii, the other a debt of 50 - that's £50,000 compared to £5,000

Parable of the unmerciful servant

The servant was forgiven a debt of 10,000 talents, yet threw his fellow servant in jail for a debt of 100 denarii. The first debt was £100 million(!), the second was £10,000.

So it's important not to imply that the smaller debt was insignificant. It was a real debt - other people do us real wrongs (for some people - horrendous wrongs. And Jesus is not saying these don't matter). We should forgive, not because it doesn't matter, but because we realise how impossibly large is the debt God has forgiven us (do we?)

Widow's mite

She put in two small copper coins - that's £1

It was not 2p, as we sometimes imply. 2p is worthless, so you might as well put it in. £1 could buy something to eat, yet she gave it.

New Testament money (part 1) - updated

Back in 2017 I wrote a couple of posts on how much Bible prices would be now. But the minimum wage has changed a lot since then - so here's an adapted version for 2025. I also used a squiggly equals sign this time ≈ because I've been illustrating a maths book that used them!

 

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I find it really helpful, when reading (or teaching) passages that involve sums of money, to translate them into modern money. After all, what does 'silver coin' or 'talent' or 'copper coin' actually mean to the average 21st century person? Was it a lot? A little? How much? How little?

So here's how I do it. It's not foolproof, but it's helpful

Denarius

(aka silver coin/drachma - same thing, different translations )

http://www.cngcoins.com

1 Denarius = a days's wage for a worker.
So take this to be minimum wage.

In the UK the minimum wage is currently £12.21 per hour. (You can substitute the minimum wage in your country.)
Assuming an average 8 hour workday, that's £97.68 a day.

So 1 denarius ≈ £100. 

 

Talent

A talent was 100 denarii.
That's £100 x 100

So 1 talent ≈ £10,000

 

Mite

(aka copper coin)

This was the smallest coin at the time.
192 in a denarius (what a weird number!)

£100÷192=0.520833

So 1 mite ≈ 50p


Of course, different things had different value in those days - clothes were incredibly expensive; rent was cheap. Some food was dearer than for us; I think some was cheaper. Still, it's a help.

Read part 2 of this enthralling story here... 

Variations on a theme

I was amused by this noughts & crosses left by some kids in church.

For the first game they used their initials, for the next they coloured the squares blue or red, then they used the traditional X and O, and finally one wrote "10" and the other wrote "100".

The magic word?

The word please is odd.

I was just writing a WhatsApp to ask someone to check who a jacket belongs to.

"Could you check if this jacket belongs to anyone?" sounds like a friendly request. I'm asking her to do it.

"Could you check if this jacket belongs to anyone, please?" sounds like an instruction - polite enough, but I'm telling her to do it.

"Check if this jacket belongs to anyone, please" sounds like an order.

The word 'Please' doesn't necessarily make a sentence politer. It may do the opposite.

This is how chatbots should be

Here's a screenshot:

It acknowledges that it is a chatbot - it's not pretending to be human and its avatar is a cute robot.

It makes clear its disadvantages (possible inaccuracy) and advantages (speed).

It accepts that you might prefer to ask a human, and makes it clear that you can do so.

It gives a clear timescale for interacting with a human, and explains why there might be delays.

While it encourages you to use the chatbot - and gives reasons - it allows you to make up your own mind.

In my case, the chatbot gave me the info I needed to know instantly. It also cited its sources, so I could check. And it then asked if I wanted to know more, or gave me the opportunity to contact a human.

That's the way to do it.

Good Friday

"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls."

~ 1 Peter 2v24-25

The usefulness of childhood stories

Whenever I'm liquidising something like soup, I remember the story of Paddington decorating his room. He switched the electric paint stirrer on before putting it into the paint, instead of once it was in. I take care not to do this - as a direct result of hearing that story 40-odd years ago.

I didn't take this photo - it came from an Etsy listing. The book is Paddington's New Room.

The king playing a carrot along with the London vegetable orchestra

 A friend told me about this, and it seemed too bizarre not to put on a blog with this name:

Isaiah 40 playlist

I was reading Isaiah 40 and was amazed at how much of it has been turned into songs I was familiar with.

So I made a playlist. (Some of them have a verse/chorus/bridge that is not from Isaiah 40, but the main body of all of them is) 

Quite a variety of styles! 

List of songs:

• Comfort Ye / Every Valley - Handel's Messiah
• The Word of the Lord - Seeds Family Worship
• O Thou that Tellest Good Tidings to Zion - Handel's Messiah
• Like a Shepherd He Feeds His Flock - Robert J Dufford (No idea why I know this - school choir, maybe?)
• Behold Our God - Sovereign Grace (Although I've used the Accapella Company's version)
• Do You Not Know - Slugs & Bugs
• Soar Like Eagles - Seeds Family Worship

A grammatically correct sentence

He said that that that that that editor had inserted was in the incorrect place.

(Though while this would be completely fine in spoken English, anyone who wrote like that would certainly need an editor.)

Some searches are really hard to do on Google

  

I meant a young stork.

The incongruity of TV adverts.

"Your plan is flawed. Scorpius will not chase the transport. Because there is one thing he values more than his precious base... Chocolate eggs." 

~ Farscape Season 1 episode 22 / Reese's ad

DIY advice my dad gave me

When drilling, make a little pocket out of scrap paper, and fix it to the wall with masking tape. Then all the plaster/brick dust will fall into the pocket, instead of onto the floor. Throw the pocket away - no cleanup neccessary!

 

Easter stickers

I'm not very good at updating this blog with my actual art 🤦

I've recently got easter stickers printed.

First, some brand NEW designs, aimed at younger children, or new contacts who know very little about Jesus. Still the focus on Jesus' death and - especially - resurrection. Nice and cheerful and Eastery. Lots of eggs! But avoiding the wall-to-wall pastels and fluffiness that is characteristic of lots of Easter stuff.

 I also reissued my classic Easter designs as paper stickers. Aimed at primary school children. More depth on why Jesus died and rose - probably best for church kids who know the basics. Leaning into the sometimes ghoulish tastes of small boys💀!

 

 

I have other Easter stickers still available while stocks last. Find them all here.

Quirky Sunday School leaders

Came across this in an old magazine I found lying around in church. I liked it.

Embrace the lady who is not seriously on the Asperger's scale, but is unusual. Part of her unusualness lies in her ability to design a £2 torch out of A4 paper, paperclips and a dumpster dive at the local hardware shop. She wants to do it not just because she can but because she knows that Jesus is the light of the world, and that children who do the torch activity will have the torch and handwritten Bible verse sitting on top of their fridge with the other torches for months to come. (This idea may or may not be based on the observation of the top of the author's fridge.)

Embrace as one of the team the unemployable man who really needs as much looking after as any of the children because of his disability issues, but radiates pure joy at being part of the team. Yes, you had to recruit another team member to look after him. No, any sensible analysis says he should have been gently moved aside to whatever places such men are gently moved aside to. But his heart is for the gospel, and has been for many years, and now he is here on the team, and who really knows how God will use him. Perhaps he will simply be a drain on resources. Is this actually bad for the gospel?

(Sorry didn't take a note of the author, but it was an issue of The Briefing from 2013, I think)

Bad design

If you need to cover your carton of fabric softener in huge ugly DO NOT DRINK warnings, maybe consider that putting it in a carton identical to a juice carton is not the best idea.

Also, there's no braille warning.

🍦Analogies need to actually make sense

I came across this explanation of delayed gratification, aimed at children:

"Have you ever had a yummy ice cream cone right in front of you that you really, really wanted to eat? But wait, there’s a trick! Sometimes, instead of eating the ice cream right away, you might decide to save it for later. Why? Because when you wait, it becomes even more delicious!"

Ummm... ice cream?

Real life v virtual

When looking at a real life globe, you can't zoom in to read small text by using a gesture as you would on your phone 🤦‍♀️

On the plus side, you see everything the right shape and size.

A new year(ish) song

I like to choose a song for each new year, but I couldn't decide - none seemed quite right. Then we sang this last Sunday, and I think it's a good choice:

A very wise mop

 

Happy World Braille Day!

 Here's a video about the importance of Braille:

And here's a shameless plug for my colouring book for blind and visually impaired people www.kirstymca.co.uk/blind

Happy New Year!