Of bread... and ducks

 

Ecclesiastes 11:1   NKJV

Cast your bread upon the waters, For you will find it after many days.

A week or so ago I woke up with this verse in my mind. And was quite surprised to discover where it came from in the Bible (shame on me). It is part of a passage that encourages generosity and bold action in a world that is unpredictable and full of uncertainty. We could certainly do with some of that. How long is many days though?? 

And here I have another instance of my brain ferreting things away for when I might need them, even when I don’t know that I need them. And thank you Mr Google for making things so much easier to find when said brain just won’t reveal the whole picture. 

In this instance God had a message for me about sending forth my words. Not to be shy of doing so. And a perfect subject for a blog post. We are in the market of casting our words out, not necessarily knowing the reception they will find. Not always ever knowing what seeds they might have sown and what fruit they might produce. 

I will now digress and must share a little of the meanderings that then occurred in my wayward brain. Casting bread on water made me think of ducks. And you do know don’t you that bread isn’t good for ducks? But then I remembered a Facebook post I had seen about ducks… and I had to find it.

Getting our ducks in a row. That’s something else that can be a luxury rather than a necessity when we are wanting to launch our words.

 We think we are being helpful when we feed bread to ducks. But it can be harmful. I don’t think my words are ever harmful, but they might not be the most helpful. Or they might be taken out of context. Words are very precious gifts to us, and we must treat them with care. And not squander them. We need to cover them with prayer at every stage of the writing process. We need to cover ourselves (and ask others to do the same) with prayer so that we do wake up in the mornings hearing God's purpose for us.

Then again, we must not be too precious with our words. Sometimes we just have to say a prayer and let them go out on the water. 

A large part of my wool stash, a knitting loom and a television set are all things that I have cast on the waters in the last couple of weeks. Not to get anything back, but admittedly with altruistic motives. They were all relatively easy to part with. I then heard that the loom had been passed on to someone else. The friend who told me this was worried that I might be upset. I wasn’t because I was just glad it was going to be used. I am learning that when I give away ownership of things it is no longer my business what happens to them. They are gone and it is not up to me to choose or approve the use they are put to. 

Of course it isn’t quite that easy with our words. They are much more an integral part of the real us. And we can be very hurt if they are misused, stolen, copied. Or perhaps worst of all ignored. Maybe we need to pray for a bit of a thick skin, or, remembering my post last month, just concentrate on knowing that at the end of the day it is God's word that is all important.

Your word is a lamp to my feet, And a light unto my path. Psalm 119: 105 NKJV

Liz Pacey is a Reader at St Albans Church Hull, and has a special interest in writing about knitting and spirituality.