Colourful Dreamer

Yesterday we said farewell to someone who showed us what it means to be an ordianry New Zealander. Our church ran a memorial service last night. Here are the prayers I wrote for this service as a tribute to the man and his legacy. Creator of life and light, We praise you this day for the beauty of your world, for mountains stretching ever towards the sky, the vast reaches of ice and snow in Antarctica, rivers such as the Ganges with thread on into the hills, for the radiance of dawn and the last smouldering calm of the sunset. We thank you for the life of Sir Edmund Hillary a life well lived We thank you for his many achievements for his great love of adventure, for his passion for the Sherpa people for his humility A man who showed us what it means to be “an ordinary New Zealander” God, Creator of mountain and ice Creator of all Hear our prayer Gracious God, surround us and all who mourn this day with your continuing compassion. We especially pray for the family and friends of Sir Ed.

Two Choices, I know you'll make the right one. What would you do? You make the choice. Don't look for a punch line, there isn't one. Read it anyway. My question is: Would you have made the same choice? At a fund raising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: 'When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?' The audience was stilled by the query. The father continued. 'I believe that when a child like Shay, physically and mentally handicapped comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people tr