still wondering about the pearl

I am still wondering about the Parable of the Great Pearl (aka the Pearl of Great Price).

I wonder how you'd feel about someone spending his grocery money - or rent money - on illegal drugs...

... or designer clothes... 

... or gold jewelry. 

I wonder if you watched the video I linked to here, and how you responded to it.

I wonder how you'd feel about someone giving her life savings to a televangelist? 

I wonder how that's different - *is* it different? - from the story in Mark 12:41-44.

I wonder how much God really expects us to give. 

I wonder what God really expects us to give. 

I wonder what it is that we get in return. 

"Pearls being removed from oysters" by Keith Pomakis

I wonder if we are supposed to identify with the merchant (in the parable of the Pearl of Great Price) or not. 

If not, I wonder who the merchant could really be.

an extravagance of glitter glue

We're getting through a lot of glitter glue at Junior Church. Peter Privett advises that when stocking art materials, Check that there's material for both boys and girls. There's no hard and fast rule but girls tend to opt for drawing etc. - boys for activities that require manipulation. Too much glitter might send the wrong message. ("Designing and Building a Godly Play Classroom") Well, more than once in our classroom all the boys have chosen to work with glitter glue and all the girls have worked with clay. I'm pleased that our children do not feel trapped by gender stereotypes! 

But the thing that glitter glue has really got me thinking about is generosity and extravagance. I often say that one thing I love about Godly Play is its lavishness. We have all the time we need. I believe in the goal of providing beautiful and good quality materials, the goal that both story materials and art materials should be attractive, perhaps even the best your group can afford. So I'm surprised and unnerved by how anxious I get about our glitter glue expenditure. We seem to be getting through a LOT of glitter glue at Junior Church. 

I thought I understood the ideal of letting children explore for themselves what works and what doesn't work. But when one child started piling glitter-blob upon glitter-blob, and announced, I'm making a castle, I broke down. I said firmly that glitter glue wouldn't work for constructing upwards. If you want to make a castle, you need to use play-dough. If you want to use glitter paint, you need to make a painting. 

I keep re-playing that scene in my mind. I am struggling to find a good balance between freedom and limits, between instructing and letting the child explore. Perhaps I also need to remind myself that sometimes it's appropriate to break open a whole bottle of nard? (Mark 14:3, John 12:3)