Today we put the birds, flying over a rainbow, on to our Noah's Ark.
The
story of Noah is one of several stories in the Bible which show how people
have always worried about evil in the world.
In Noah's story, the Israelites explain how they thought God wiped out
bad things every so often.
In today's Gospel ( Matthew13: 24-43 ), Jesus tells a story in which people
are still worried and the bad things people are worried about are seen
as weeds which grow among the good crop. People want to know if they should
try to pull up the weeds. Jesus says not to worry, only God knows what
is really a weed and God will sort it out when God is ready.
Then Jesus tells several stories to show the power of the kingdom of heaven.
Like yeast in a huge mass of dough, the kingdom can change the whole world.
Only a very small amount of yeast would make a large lump of dough rise-
so a small amount of goodness or kindness can bring about huge changes
amongst people.
The
yeast is put into a large mass of dough in the story- the woman does not
divide the dough into smaller amounts. This tells us that Jesus wants
us to know the kingdom of God is meant for the whole world. We do not
hear about God and then separate ourselves off from others who have not
heard.
This ( and making birds ) reminded us of the way Saint Francis was said
to have sent the birds to which he preached to all corners of the earth-
North and South, West and East. This makes a cross! He reminded the birds
that God had saved them on Noah's Ark.
We made a Saint Francis cross, covered with birds.
