Quiet conversations

It's the small conversations that happen in a week that often have the most impact on my preaching, or my journeying through an issue. Over the last few weeks, I've been thankful for small, quick, gentle conversations that have marked my day and reminded me of the strength of call within to serve as a parish minister. Given the numerous words that can be found elsewhere about recent events in the Church of Scotland, it is wonderful to find people who can say so much in so little. So I am thankful for the man who caught me in the corridor after coffee one Sunday and reminded me that all people matter no matter race, gender, age or sexuality. And I'm thankful for the sometime grumpy elder who stunned me by reminding me that we are all afraid of the things we are uncertain of.

Tonight at a meeting I opened with Luke 13: 18 - 21, encountering the little pictures of what God's kingdom is like. And in the small conversations I find that those little pictures are added to, that my (our) understanding of the kingdom might grow.