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.

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.

Swallowed a dictionary

Tidying out, and came across a piece of paper from a number of years ago, where I'd jotted down a quote from a kid at Sunday School.

Me:This story will be familiar to all of you

Child: That doesn't look like a story I'm familiar with - according to my calculations 

Learning to tell jokes

6 year old: Why do fairies like fairy cakes?

Me: I don't know, why do fairies like fairy cakes?

6 year old: Because it's a fairy.

Not quite there yet, but on the right track.

Fiction and non-fiction

I was standing by the church library while two wee girls were looking at the kids' books.

('Bible Fiction' means historical fiction and time-travel stories about Bible events.)

Child 1: In my school we can choose whether we want to read a fiction book or a non-fiction book.

Me: Which do you prefer?

Child 1: Fiction 

Child 2: Non-fiction, because it tells you about things that are real.

It made me think of that Neil Gaiman quote (where he was misquoting GK Chesterton):

Fairy tales are more than true – not because they tell us dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten.

I did not confuse them by telling them this!

The eye of the beholder

I was in the train, and a bunch of kids came on, on a school trip.

Obviously the four wee girls in front of me had never been into town on the train before. I caught snatches of their conversation as they exclaimed about everything:

"It's beautiful - look at it. Look at the design. It's like someone's drawn on the bricks."

This was what she was seeing.

"Ohhhhhh.... Guys, look!"

 No idea what she was referring to - all I could see was a plain stone wall.

"Ohhhh... Woaahhh...."

This was some more run down urban scenery.

"Look! It's like such nice sights!"

That was as we crossed the Clyde - not sure if she was referring to the river or the buildings.

 

And finally, as we entered Glasgow Central:

"Ohhhh... Look at this place!"

I know I notice things other people don't see, but they were really taking it to the next level, and getting so much joy out of it.

Made me think of this song by Yvonne Lyon.

Solitary sheep

I'm reading Genesis at the minute, and I got to the bit where Jacob sent a gift to appease his brother Esau: 

🐐 200 female goats, 20 male goats, 

🐑 200 female sheep, 20 male sheep, 

🐪 30 female camels with their babies, 

🐄 40 cows, 10 bulls, 

🫏 20 female donkeys, and 10 male donkeys.

It made me think of the time we did that story at Sunday School and one small boy started giggling.

Because, he said, "180 female sheep wouldn't be able to get married".

A.I. Psalm

I'm terrible at remembering to post art-related stuff here - I tend to do it on Facebook but I should do both.

I've been playing about with A.I. (don't worry, I'm not going to start using it to draw my pictures!)

 

Anyway, amongst the weird hands, inexplicable outfits, and mutant books, I got this picture:

 

(The prompt I gave it was: Children Sunday School Bible church. Style: cyberpunk)

 

Not only has it got no big errors, but it also made me think of a line from a Psalm. So I made a poster.

 

 

If you want a high-res version it's in my shop (for free) here.

A loooooooooong time ago

I was explaining to the children how God has always existed. 

He was there 100 years ago... A thousand years ago... A million... A billion... A trillion...

5 year old: an octillion

7 year old: a googolplex,*

Wasn't expecting that 😆

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*Fortunately I did know this was a real number! Didn't know how big, so I've just looked it up. It's 10¹⁰¹⁰⁰, which means that the mass of the books needed to write the number down would be many times the mass of the visible universe. Fairly large, then.

Analogies are not (necessarily) heresy

Wrote this aaaages ago - finally got round to finishing and posting.

From time to time, people claim that this analogy or that analogy of the Trinity gives the wrong idea of God, or is even heretical. I'm sure that's sometimes true. But sometimes I think it's just that the people criticising it are trying to make an analogy do more than it's meant to.

For example, take the triangle. People say it's a bad way to explain the Trinity because each member of the Trinity is fully God, whereas each side of a triangle is not a triangle. But, I don't think it's bad, just - like all analogies - incomplete. It would only be a bad analogy if you were saying that a triangle says everything that's to be said about how the Trinity relates - and that's not how analogies work.

Craft we made, based on these instructions.

 

I have used the triangle analogy in Sunday school. I'm teaching people who may not yet even know that Jesus is God. So all the analogy is meant to say is that:

• The trinity is a thing.
• There is one God, made of three people, (who are all God).
• They are the Father, the Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit.

It's true in what it intends to teach - it's not the last word on the subject.

Actually, it's the same with the analogies of Jesus which are used in the Bible. He is variously described as our father, future husband, brother, master, shepherd, a lamb, a vine, a gate, bread, water, light... If you took any of those to extremes you could easily make a heresy. And some of them are mutually contradictory.

 

But the point is that Jesus - who is far more than we could ever understand - is a little bit like all those things (and the context usually makes it clear in what way).

Here's a quote:

We have to think about Christ using ideas and images, but if we put our trust in these symbols, rather than in the One they symbolize, we will be making a big mistake. [...] By using more than one image for God, we remind ourselves that any image we use is only temporary; it must be corrected and relieved by other images. These images serve our minds; they do not save our souls. A fork is not food.

~Michael Ward, The Narnia Code

Non sequiturs

First day back at Sunday School, colouring pictures about 'B is for Bible', when the child next to me suddenly asks  - "Did you know that pirates still exist?"

A few minutes later he starts talking about the noise turkeys make, and instead of colouring his picture, fills in all the blank space around it with pictures of two turkeys, a nest, a baby turkey and eggs.

I'm going to enjoy having this child in my class! 😊 * 

 

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*I realise that could sound sarcastic but I mean it literally.

Forks

I've wanted to use wooden forks as kings for aaages! 

King David

We made these yesterday.

With more time, glitter or gold paint on the crown would have been nice.

Colosseum / Herod's temple size comparison

 Answer to question in previous post:

(very simplified plans)

Out of the mouth of babes

 Haven't posted one of these for ages...

We were doing the calming of the storm in Sunday School, and Naresh taught us how to make paper boats.

My boat

One of the kids was struggling a bit with the folding, and said,

"My paper won't obey me, like the sea obeyed God."

I still don't have enough S's

The magnetic letters I have been using for Sunday School are the ones I had when I was wee.

I bought some extras recently, but it's still not enough!

 Well, it'll amuse the children.

When the standard answer backfires

In church we have worksheets for the kids, to help them engage with the service. I was picking up those that had been left on the seats.

One of the questions said 'draw or write something from the Bible reading'. One child had written 'God'.

I suppose it seemed like a safe bet. However I'm not convinced the child was actually listening. You see, we're going through the book of Esther at the minute...*

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*Esther is the one book of the Bible that doesn't mention God even once!

The importance of cover design

This is a girl's book.

Actually, it's not.

If I remember right, all the characters - and certainly the hippo - are male. The author is male. There's nothing girly about it.

But, as I discovered a few years ago, if you're a 7-year-old boy, it will look like a girl's book (and you will delight to point this out to your friend who recieved it).

Here's a colour tweak which would have made a huge difference:

Although I think these old covers are better still:

Rainbow crosses

People are putting rainbows in their windows to symbolise hope. So here are some crosses that our Sunday School kids made to remind us that our true hope comes from Jesus.

All done in an appropriately socially-distant manner: They made them at home, photographed them, and WhatsApped them to me. I printed them at church, cut them out and stuck them up.

I love how different they all turned out.

Quick, easy Christmas decoration craft

Went well with the theme of our nativity being about God's gift.

You will need:

• Coloured foam. I used sparkly A5 foam, from a pound shop.
• Sticky-backed foam (or use glue, but sticky is easier). Or self adhesive ribbon, but I couldn't find any.
• Suitable stickers. The crowns and hearts were actually taken from a fairytale set!
• String
• Single hole punch. Small hole if possible - a leather punch is good, because it can cut through a lot of layers.

Teachers preparation:

1. Cut the foam into 'squares'. A5 gives 6 more or less square pieces. A guillotine is quickest.
2. Cut the sticky foam into strips. 1cm (ish). 

With the kids:

1. Stick two strips to a square. This makes it look like a parcel and also a cross!
2. Decorate with stickers.
3. Punch hole.
4. Thread string.
5. Repeat till parents come!
6. Brush up all the backing paper from the stickers...

God Doesn't Have a Birthday

This is a fun song! And it says a lot, too.