Headmaster’s Weekly Comment: 15/10/12

We tell lots of stories to the children in Assembly, in Scripture and Philosophy classes; and all of them are intended to  be lively and entertaining.  Without wanting to be ponderous or heavy, we
also want the stories to edify.  We want  the stories to be captivating and therefore memorable; and therefore lodge in the children’s hearts, and so be available when the point or principle embedded in them is needed.

These stories are often directly about God.  Because God is compassionate, merciful and highly efficient, He comes to us in a myriad of ways, all designed to capture our attention and arouse our curiosity.  God can come to us externally in the guise of an invisible, loving parent-like figure with carefully formulated rules for living a good and fruitful life.

Or God can turn up in a more intimate form as an affectionate friend and intimate companion, usually embodied as a Jesus or a Krishna, whose human qualities excite our warmth and admiration, and whose God-like qualities excite our devotion and reverence.

Lastly, God comes to us in that still small voice of inspiration, conscience or insight which appears in us as a flash of light, or as a steady guiding lantern of moral or ethical values.  In this guise He is our own highest Self, readily accessible through inner stillness and meditation.

All religions speak of these three forms of God; and the stories we tell to the children cover all bases as well.