This particular visit was for a special writing weekend organised in conjunction with the Association of Christian Writers.
While away I wrote absolutely NOTHING, but that's a whole other story.
However we were asked to bring a short piece of writing about us and as fairytales seem to be my favourite genre at the moment I wrote this story.
The Storyteller and The Princess
Once upon a time there was a Storyteller who crafted a marionette
with blue grey eyes and golden hair. She liked to believe she was a princess –
well she was given the name Sarah so that’s pretty much the same thing!
The Storyteller travelled the land performing tales for
those who would listen. The Princess loved all his stories but preferred the
fairy tales best of all and wherever they went she was always searching for her
very own happy ever after.
One day they rode to the north east of the Kingdom. It was a
strange land with fire breathing dragons that lit up the night sky and wild
raging seas that stole their breath away. The Storyteller and his favourite
creation were welcomed and the decision was made to stay.
The princess was particularly overjoyed at this because she
had met a clockwork engine driver who had set her heart a flutter.
One day engine driversent her a note
Would you like to go out to dinner - no strings
“Papa, please can I go?” She begged the Storyteller.
He nodded, He had engineered their meeting and this was part
of his plan.
“With no strings?” she pleaded.
Her father looked at her, all grown up now but not really
worldly wise, he worried she’d get hurt but the time had come to let her go. He
knew the clockwork man to be hardworking, good and honest so he gave them his
blessing.
In return after they married the Storyteller was invited to
live with them in their new home and together they created two perfect little
clockwork princes’, blonde haired, blue eyed and absolutely adorable (most of
the time).
Despite the ups and downs of everyday ordinary non fairytale
life the Princess often believed she had at last found the happy ending she’d
searched so long and hard for.
However one day she returned home to find that her clockwork
husband had wound down, no matter how much she turned the key to wind him up
again she couldn’t get his heart to tick.
She looked to the Storyteller but he sadly shook his head, the
main spring had snapped making the clockwork mechanism irreparable.
“It’s not fair,” she shouted stamping her feet before
slumping to the floor in an unravelling puddle.
Moved to tears the storyteller tenderly lifted her up and
surveyed her torn and tattered heart. It would take a lot of careful mending to
repair it fully, for now he decided to patch it up with scraps of rainbows each
piece a promise that he would write her a new happy ending … one day!
If you understand the title of today’s post you are probably
a Dr Who fan!
I don’t intend to get into a huge debate about which long
running SciFi saga is the best but Dr Who is my personal favourite, always
reinventing itself with new incarnations and regenerations of the Time Lord
reaching out through time and space to a new generation.
I vividly remember hiding behind a cushion as a child while
watching the Doctor on his adventures in the seventies and eighties. Tom Baker
regenerating into Peter Davidson was my classic era. And when Christopher
Ecclestone appeared on our screens as Doctor Who for the new millennium I was
so excited to be able to share the Dr Who experience with my own children.
At half term I took
youngest son on a week away to Scargill House, where I had been on my own
earlier in the year. Read about it here and here.
Scargill House is a Christian community and this particular
week away was entitled Travels in the Tardis, we explored what it would be like
to travel with the Lord of Time and what it is really like to follow the Lord
of all.
So what does Jesus have in common with the Doctor?
Well here are a few thoughts on the subject that emerged
last week, comparisons, questions and quotes…
The Doctor hates to travel
alone. He is so much better when in community with others and he picks his
companions well.
God is three in one, the trinity,
never alone and yet He too holds out his hand to us and invites us on an
adventure that He longs to share with us.
“I've seen fake gods and bad gods and demigods and would-be gods;
out of all that, out of that whole pantheon, if I believe in one thing...
just one thing... I believe in her.” This is what The Doctor says
of Rose in The Satan Pit.
Do we dare to think the God believes in us? He’s there always cheering us
on, fully knowing what we are capable of.Sometimes we wonder if we are fit for the tasks before us but God is
there whispering, like most of us parents do – I know you can do this – I
believe in YOU!
“I have a thing. It's like a plan, but with more greatness.” The
Doctor tells Vincent Van Gogh.
God has a thing or a plan, it says so in the often quoted Jeremiah 29
“For I know the plans I have for you.”
The Doctor makes up the plan as he goes along, certain points in time are
fixed and others moveable.
The book of Revelation at the end of the Bible tells us how the Bible story
ultimately ends – God wins! We know the Doctor will save the world by the end
of each episode or at the very least the series. What happens in the middle is
always a bit of a “thing” that develops through the actions of the characters!
Another great quote from Vincent and the Doctor “The way I see it,
life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don’t always
soften the bad things, but vice versa the bad things don’t always spoil
the good things and make them unimportant.”
God never tells us things will be easy just that He will always be with
us.
“Don’t wander off” is the Doctor’s rule number 1. Do his companions ever listen?
Do we always listen and follow God?
Yet God and the Doctor are always around when we do get lost, already
ready to answer our distress call, our phone call, our prayers in unexpected and
marvellous ways.
Martha says of the Doctor “He has saved your lives so many times and
you never even knew he was there. He never stops. He never stays. He never
asks to be thanked. But I've seen him, I know him... I love him... And I
know what he can do.”
Thinking about how the doctor saves us more often than we imagine
remained me so much of one of my favourite Bible quotes from Ephesians.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably
more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within
us,to him be
glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever
and ever! Amen.
That verse also
hints at the fact we have a part to play in this adventure. His power at work
in us. Just at the Doctor’s companions realise their worth and abilities while
travelling with the Doctor as we draw closer to God our stories become more
entwined and our eyes are opened to the workings of an all-powerful God behind
the scenes.
There are more
things happening in heaven and earth than we can think of or imagine and yet
God’s imagination is limitless, he saves us and NEVER stops.
But the
Doctor isn’t an infallible and perfect God figure.
He promises in
Voyage of the Damned, the Christmas special starring Kylie, that he was going to
save everyone. Like all the old disaster movies popular in the seventies, all
the good people died saving others while the seemingly undeserving survived.
Despite his best efforts the Doctor can’t save Astrid and that tears him apart,
it is the beginning of the end of David Tennant’s reign as The Doctor.
God never makes
such rash promises but he says “I will be
with you until the very end of the age.” At the end of Matthew’s gospel, another of my
favourite passages.
“I’ve
lived too long.” The Doctor woefully tells Wilf as he eventually gives his
life for his friend when he knocks four times.
Jesus gives his
life for us, just for us, each and every ordinary one of us. Yet he believes we
are worth dying for to set creation right.
Our week away was great;
we had fun, laughed, watched lots of Doctor Who, wrote a radio play, did some
screen printing, visited a cave and ate lots of cake, including fishfinger cake
and custard, remembering to sing the Doctor Who grace before eating!
Best of all I have
made even more friends, who love life, Dr Who and Jesus – sounds like a
fantastic combination to me. (The perfect centre to my Venn Diagram - if you follow the blog you will know what that means! Or check out my post here.)
Here’s a video that
featured a lot during our week too…
Please feel free to add your own comments and thoughts on
the area of Dr Who, Science fiction and faith, I’m genuinely interested.
Here are some more thoughts, memories and photos from last week.
Standing on the top of Connie Pie, might have spelt that wrong but the view was fantastic, weather glorious and company delightful!
Then there was the food, afternoon tea everyday at 4 with plenty of cake. Pineapple upside down cake and custard for pudding on almost the hottest day of the year. And a fish pie with a crumble topping, only the crumble topping was sweet not savoury - so glad I don't like fish and had chicken instead!
The road to Kettlewell
For part of the week we shared Scargill with some lads from Housing Justice, on their last night they had a camp fire and we talked about tattoos and drugs - not the conversation I expected to be having on my time away but they were great fun and added a very special dimension to the week.
A sheep I spotted while on my walk
One evening we had a film night, was quite relieved when it was Johnny English and not something heavy and spiritual. Lots of laughter in the lounge that night.
On another evening we had a sort of quiz and we sort of won! But we graciously donated our prize to a young girl who was there with her family all the way from Australia.
We were quite a multi-cultural group with a couple from Germany too.
Here's some of the work produced during the week.
One lady took a photo of everyone and pasted them on the cross.
At our celebration service there were poems, pictures, drama sketches, monologues, songs specially written and even a rap about the parts of the body. I was so glad to be involved "innit"!
