Supporting others...

I'm missing the sunshine! I had got used to sitting outside in the garden for my cup of coffee in the afternoon. It's not the same, is it if you have to wrap up warm in order to sit outside for a cuppa? I started a jigsaw a couple of weeks ago. It is a bit addictive and difficult to pass it by without sitting down and putting a few pieces in place. The thing is though is that it is a difficult jigsaw and it takes me quite a while to find those 'few pieces'. It certainly makes the time pass by but my problem is that I am quite busy so I have to be quite disciplined with myself not to spend too long on it.

I hear a lot of mixed responses from people when it comes to 'filling their day'.  Like me, some people are very busy and still find that there isn't enough hours in a day to do all that they want to do. Others are finding it really tough. We are all very different and there isn't a right or a wrong.

Being confined to home certainly makes you think about all the things that we've taken for granted in the past. I know that I am much more aware about waste and trying to make things last. It isn't so easy now to just pop down to the shops to replace things. It's lovely living at Settle but I sometimes have to go further afield in order to find the things that I need and we are only supposed to travel for 'essentials'. Some things are not available in the shops no matter where you live!

The post-war years of rationing are before my time but my grandma knew all about making ends meet. She never threw anything away that might come in useful and she could always lay her hand on 'just the thing', when needed. If a present received was wrapped with a ribbon, the ribbon would be neatly wound and put to one side, as would the wrapping paper. She would cut the buttons off all clothing that had reached its end of life. I remember when I was a child and she would get the button jars down and my sisters and I would make pictures and patterns with them. She wouldn't dream of throwing food away. Any leftovers would go back into the fridge and be made use of in another meal. She had a Singer sewing machine - one of those treadle ones where the sewing machine would fold away underneath. She never did go to a modern electric one. There was no need, she could make anything with the one she had. She was a knitter too. In fact it was my grandma who taught me to knit. My grandma's generation knew all about living through difficult times and the times we are living through at the moment are often being compared with the war years. 

Survival has always been tough. In Jesus' time, the common purse for himself and his followers was held by Judas. I imagine that money was tight, after all they had left their livelihoods behind in order to follow Christ. We know from the NT that Jesus was supported financially by some women, so just imagine the shock and the horror when Mary anointed Jesus' feet with expensive perfume. I can imagine the gasp that must have gone round the room? The words of the song come to mind:

"Oh Mary, oh Mary, oh think of the poor, this ointment it could have been sold;

and think of the blankets and think of the bread, you could buy with the silver and gold,'

he said, you could buy with the silver and gold."

The story of Mary made it into all four gospels:

Matthew 26:6–13; Mark 14:3–9; Luke 7:36–50; John 12:1–8
Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; 

Susanna; and many others. 

These women were helping to support them out of their own means."Luke 8:3