Flavors of Faith

[spectrumbot]

When I was young,

My daddy and I, hand in hand, walked to church.

Beside me he sang with comforting chocolate voice,

but soon he was gone, to the sky, I was told.

Then time drizzled by,

and my mummy and I, dressed in our best, went together.

She sang in a biscuity voice, tinged with essence of tears.

“Your bread and water shall be sure,” she said

as we ate our bread and dripping.

From manger to Golgotha

I have traveled. Now my children

sing of Heaven and hope, but their tones

are vegan herb slice, or tangy lemon cake,

or raspberry flan, red as blood, or

unleavened bread served with wine.

Iced rainbow cake or curry and rice —

same sacred chef, same basic menu.

Diverse are the flavors of faith.

New Zealand born Mary Trim, who writes as Marye Trim, has a PhD in English Literature (Loughborough, UK, 1998) and studied journalism at the University of Queensland, Australia. She has authored five published books and hundreds of inspirational articles, stories and poems and was a newspaper columnist for nine years, while also working as missionary teacher in India and Thailand. She feels called to writing ministry and sees herself as akin to those “Out of Zebulon, they who handle the pen of the writer” (Judges 5:14).

Photo by Lisa Hobbs on Unsplash

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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://spectrummagazine.org/node/10235

[c_j_wesn (Carolyn Wesner)]

I loved this! “Diverse are the flavors of faith”. Thank you.

[elmer_cupino]

Diverse are the flavors of faith.

Donald Winnicott was a pediatrician turned child psychiatrist/analyst who originated the concept of “holding environment” which he described as the child’s and and his mother’s “space between inner and outer world, which is also the space between people–the transitional space–that intimate relationships and creativity occur.” It is a developmental process in the ushering of the child into developing a normal self. The mother plays an important role similar to the laying of train tracks for the train. Each mother has her own strengths and weaknesses in parenting and becomes evident in the child’s development of self. Nowhere can the mother’s influence be manifested than in the realm of faith where her template is well-defined while the object of faith is ill-defined. Because each mother has her own influence over her child’s sense of self, thus the presence of different flavors of faith.

Isn’t diversity great!?