I’ve been thinking about insignificance. About how often a mustard seed becomes a mighty tree. People often tell me that the Christian gospel is man-made and that is why it is so hard to believe. I would posit the converse – the reason why it is true is because it’s so bizarre. We don’t write stories like those – if you examine the myths and legends from just about every culture, whether it is about fairies, or dragons, gods on Olympus, sea monsters, sun gods, giants, you name it – the constructs are recognisably human. The protagonists might have green or blue skin, they may be 8ft tall or fit on top of a thimble, but they act like humans.
Forget Easter, crucifixion and resurrection. The creator of all things decided to make some people in his image and when they went astray, he waved his hands, weeded out the offending people and started again? No, he decided to go into their universe as the weakest possible version of humanity so that he could grow up and die and carry all their sins for them. Then he would make all things new. What??? That is possibly the craziest idea I’ve ever heard. That is not a story that we would write.
And how did this redeemer go about putting in place the way in which the world would be saved? He selected 12 completely ordinary men and spent 3 years teaching them before he allowed himself to be arrested and crucified. He didn’t build the largest army ever seen, he didn’t give them power to zing any unbelievers with lightning. He told them to go and make disciples of all nations and then left them to it. And here we are in 2026.
The crucifixion and resurrection of Christ is even crazier. God allows himself to be crucified so that he can draw all to him on the cross? A form of death that is so painful, it has its own adjective – excruciating. While on that cross, he forgives the very people who are crucifying him. The first person he welcomes into paradise afterwards is a thief who also died on the cross. This is not a story humans would write. Our version would involve a rescue by the angelic host, summary execution of Pontius Pilate, fire raining from heaven on all of Jerusalem, and Jesus wearing a crown encrusted with every precious gem known to mankind.
My thoughts were prompted by a woman writing on social media this weekend. She’s an America mother requesting prayer for her son who is one of the fighter pilots in Iran. She asked for prayer for his safety, and you can imagine the replies. Let’s just say that people declined to pray for the safety of someone who left his home to travel thousands of miles to kill other people’s children. Yet what is a mother to do?
After the bombing of the school where 168 children were killed, I suspect most Christians at their very best might be able to stop from wishing these people to perdition as we struggle with the sixth commandment. But, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do?” That takes some doing, and it’s why I know we did not write the story. I an not Iranian or Palestinian or Lebanese but I cannot say those words. How much more, if it’s your nation being pummeled and your people being slaughtered. That’s why I know we did not write that story.
We are all uneasy, and we can see that everything that can be shaken is being shaken. Will things go back to how they were, and can we revert to our blissful ignorance? I don’t know. I do know that while this may not be the end, there will be one day that is the end.
Forget the Strait of Hormuz, Christ says, “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it.” Does that mean that the majority of humanity is doomed? I don’t think so, because that same Bible says “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.” On this most hopeful of days, I quote the reason for the season Himself, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Christ Is Risen. Happy Easter.
https://alaraapothecary.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/alara.png00alaradesigns@gmail.comhttps://alaraapothecary.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/alara.pngalaradesigns@gmail.com2026-04-05 19:00:022026-04-05 19:00:04Small Things
Happy Good Friday everyone. Hope you’re enjoying the Easter Weekend. It feels good to be celebrating the second Easter after the covid debacle. It’s been a roller-coaster with changes in leadership all over the world, the release of the WhatsApp message detailing the massive discrepancy between the fear-fest the populace was subjected to and the reality of the actual scientific facts, and of course the royal family shenanigans. If you haven’t read the cabinet WhatsApp messages, you should. They are a doozy but beware, you might need anger management sessions afterwards.
Unstable banks, unstable governments, unstable heads of state. The net effect on the human race? Anxiety. If you work in close contact with lots of people or are in a customer-facing role, you know what I’m talking about. Throw in the cost of living crisis, and the fact that most of us go about our business with a smile on our faces (mostly!) says a lot about the resilience of the human spirit. Contemplating all this on Good Friday with its message of the possibility of redemption and the virtues of self-sacrifice led me to wondering about the ways in which we all try to cope.
I have been a practising Christian as far back as I can remember and have believed that I have God’s protection all my life. I do get anxious and I do worry, and like everyone else, I don’t know what the future holds. However, I also always have the thought that there is somewhere to go for help, and that there is a bright and certain hope for the future, both now and after death. There is more, and there is a purpose for my life. It is impossible to imagine what life feels like to be in the world, without hope.
My atheist/agnostic friends tell me that is all pie-in-the-sky, and maybe they are right, and maybe they are wrong. But my faith sustains me, and having survived earthquake, flood and fire, I know in whom I have believed and God has never let me down. Hence this love letter to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away all the sins of the World. So, wherever you are today, believer or not, I pray that you can hold fast to what is true and that no matter how dire your circumstances, be able to always look towards the Light. I leave you with a super-bouncy rendition of My Lighthouse. Have a good one.
https://alaraapothecary.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/alara.png00alaradesigns@gmail.comhttps://alaraapothecary.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/alara.pngalaradesigns@gmail.com2023-04-07 15:42:012023-04-07 15:53:10In The World, With Hope
Another week on our lovely planet. It’s been really odd seeing how everything seems to be speeding up. I suspect most people have a sense of this, even if we can’t quite quantify the feeling. In the UK we’ve of course had a coup d’etat in all but name. My guess is that Boris wasn’t down with whatever is planned for us next, so he had to go. Spoiler alert – if you want to go abroad, I’d do it before September.
Not that Boris was on the side of the angels by any means but it seems to me that his heart wasn’t really in it. Essentially, he’s the type of person who fancies being king of the world but whose sense of humour or irony, not to mention sloth, would always prevent him from ruthlessly crushing his enemies. So goodbye Boris, and good luck to us all. I guess the next incumbent is going to be someone who’s all in – don’t you just want to dance a jig at the prospect? Remember, it doesn’t matter who you vote for – the government always gets in. Nil desperandum, friends. For greater is He who is in us then he who is in the world. And it doesn’t matter if you believe that truth or not, the best part of truth is that it’s always true, as Kamala Harris might very well say 🙂
What really caught my imagination this week wasn’t British political shenanigans but the Georgia guidestones. If you’ve never heard of them, GIYF. They were blown up this week by person or persons unknown but I’ve always regarded them with astonishment. Bad enough that someone might write this hate letter to the human race – to carve it in stone and display it as a manifesto of malevolence is something else. To quote Jeremiah, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
The first guideline proposes maintaining the human population at 500 million ‘in perpetual balance with nature’, whatever that may mean. To put that in perspective for you, the combined population of the USA and Nigeria is more than 500 million. Everyone else is dead – all Finns, Estonians, Kenyans, Latvians, Congolese, Ghanains, Australians, Arabs of all nations, Indians, Chinese, etc etc Everyone you know or have ever met unless they are a citizen of those two countries is dead. All citizens of the 191 other countries, poof, gone.In fact you’d have to kill some citizens of the surviving countries to bring the number down to 500 million. A brave new world indeed, who wouldn’t wish to live in lonely splendour in this new Eden?
And just in case you really hate Arabs or Americans or whatever and would love to see them decimated, let me tell you – that 500 million? You’re not on that list. Your parents, children, neighbours, friends, none of them are on that list. Stop reading this and go to your local park/mall/market – nobody you meet will be on that list, they’re all dead. And how do we maintain that magic number – think about it. If you produce child number 500 million and 1 in this new Eden because you’ve had twins, what happens next? That’s a bit of a cheat – in new Eden, reproductive rights will only apply to the chosen and all babies will be gestated in incubators before being sent to the state nurseries so no need to worry!
Yeah, but sounds like a good idea when you think about it, you say. What about overpopulation, you say? For this, you need a trusty calculator. Forget that old chestnut about Texas and fitting in the world population. Give yourself some leeway, use the North and South American continents and then factor in that some of those people will make up families that can combine their allocated area. It’s not really cramped, is it? And you still have another five empty continents that you can dedicate to agriculture and commerce. To quote Gandhi, “There is enough [land, in this case] for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed.”
So, I don’t despair. Two reasons, our side wins – it’s written and it can’t be shaken so hurrah for humanity. And secondly, people are out there today, living their lives, having a drink with friends, enjoying their families, some at the beach, some at home, some in the garden etc etc. We are never in the world, without hope. As long as the beautiful Earth stands, insane festivals like the Tomato festival in Spain go on, and human hearts are filled with love and compassion, all will be well. All the images below are of Nigeria, barring the Spanish tomato festival photo. Those are some of the resources the government is squandering through neglect, but that’s a story for another day. Here endeth the sermon. It’s a beautiful world that is full of beautiful people and we are to be valued above rubies and precious stones. Have a good one.
https://alaraapothecary.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/alara.png00alaradesigns@gmail.comhttps://alaraapothecary.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/alara.pngalaradesigns@gmail.com2022-07-10 18:48:402022-07-10 18:52:49Heart Of Man
Hi everyone, sorry I’ve been AWOL for a while but I’ve been a busy worker bee behind the scenes. I went to Nigeria for my brother’s wedding which was truly epic. The usual one week extravaganza. Let’s put it this way, I’ve lost my voice. In other news, AlaraApothecary has a double page feature in Somerset Living magagine which is amazing. The editor Jessica and her team have been so wonderful: all this has been cooking since February. I am so honoured that they included us in this month’s issue.
AlaraApothecary: onwards and upwards in Jesus’ name. The article is below. Thank you to all our incredible customers and supporters. Stockists, you know where we are…… Have a fabulous week.
https://alaraapothecary.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/alara.png00alaradesigns@gmail.comhttps://alaraapothecary.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/alara.pngalaradesigns@gmail.com2022-05-31 12:56:352022-05-31 12:56:40Hot Off The Presses
Small Things
I’ve been thinking about insignificance. About how often a mustard seed becomes a mighty tree. People often tell me that the Christian gospel is man-made and that is why it is so hard to believe. I would posit the converse – the reason why it is true is because it’s so bizarre. We don’t write stories like those – if you examine the myths and legends from just about every culture, whether it is about fairies, or dragons, gods on Olympus, sea monsters, sun gods, giants, you name it – the constructs are recognisably human. The protagonists might have green or blue skin, they may be 8ft tall or fit on top of a thimble, but they act like humans.
Forget Easter, crucifixion and resurrection. The creator of all things decided to make some people in his image and when they went astray, he waved his hands, weeded out the offending people and started again? No, he decided to go into their universe as the weakest possible version of humanity so that he could grow up and die and carry all their sins for them. Then he would make all things new. What??? That is possibly the craziest idea I’ve ever heard. That is not a story that we would write.
And how did this redeemer go about putting in place the way in which the world would be saved? He selected 12 completely ordinary men and spent 3 years teaching them before he allowed himself to be arrested and crucified. He didn’t build the largest army ever seen, he didn’t give them power to zing any unbelievers with lightning. He told them to go and make disciples of all nations and then left them to it. And here we are in 2026.
The crucifixion and resurrection of Christ is even crazier. God allows himself to be crucified so that he can draw all to him on the cross? A form of death that is so painful, it has its own adjective – excruciating. While on that cross, he forgives the very people who are crucifying him. The first person he welcomes into paradise afterwards is a thief who also died on the cross. This is not a story humans would write. Our version would involve a rescue by the angelic host, summary execution of Pontius Pilate, fire raining from heaven on all of Jerusalem, and Jesus wearing a crown encrusted with every precious gem known to mankind.
My thoughts were prompted by a woman writing on social media this weekend. She’s an America mother requesting prayer for her son who is one of the fighter pilots in Iran. She asked for prayer for his safety, and you can imagine the replies. Let’s just say that people declined to pray for the safety of someone who left his home to travel thousands of miles to kill other people’s children. Yet what is a mother to do?
After the bombing of the school where 168 children were killed, I suspect most Christians at their very best might be able to stop from wishing these people to perdition as we struggle with the sixth commandment. But, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do?” That takes some doing, and it’s why I know we did not write the story. I an not Iranian or Palestinian or Lebanese but I cannot say those words. How much more, if it’s your nation being pummeled and your people being slaughtered. That’s why I know we did not write that story.
We are all uneasy, and we can see that everything that can be shaken is being shaken. Will things go back to how they were, and can we revert to our blissful ignorance? I don’t know. I do know that while this may not be the end, there will be one day that is the end.
Forget the Strait of Hormuz, Christ says, “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it.” Does that mean that the majority of humanity is doomed? I don’t think so, because that same Bible says “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.” On this most hopeful of days, I quote the reason for the season Himself, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Christ Is Risen. Happy Easter.
Happy Easter
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
John 11. 25-26
And because of this, we are in the world, with hope. Wishing you and yours a happy, peace-filled and joyous Easter.
In The World, With Hope
Happy Good Friday everyone. Hope you’re enjoying the Easter Weekend. It feels good to be celebrating the second Easter after the covid debacle. It’s been a roller-coaster with changes in leadership all over the world, the release of the WhatsApp message detailing the massive discrepancy between the fear-fest the populace was subjected to and the reality of the actual scientific facts, and of course the royal family shenanigans. If you haven’t read the cabinet WhatsApp messages, you should. They are a doozy but beware, you might need anger management sessions afterwards.
Unstable banks, unstable governments, unstable heads of state. The net effect on the human race? Anxiety. If you work in close contact with lots of people or are in a customer-facing role, you know what I’m talking about. Throw in the cost of living crisis, and the fact that most of us go about our business with a smile on our faces (mostly!) says a lot about the resilience of the human spirit. Contemplating all this on Good Friday with its message of the possibility of redemption and the virtues of self-sacrifice led me to wondering about the ways in which we all try to cope.
I have been a practising Christian as far back as I can remember and have believed that I have God’s protection all my life. I do get anxious and I do worry, and like everyone else, I don’t know what the future holds. However, I also always have the thought that there is somewhere to go for help, and that there is a bright and certain hope for the future, both now and after death. There is more, and there is a purpose for my life. It is impossible to imagine what life feels like to be in the world, without hope.
My atheist/agnostic friends tell me that is all pie-in-the-sky, and maybe they are right, and maybe they are wrong. But my faith sustains me, and having survived earthquake, flood and fire, I know in whom I have believed and God has never let me down. Hence this love letter to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away all the sins of the World. So, wherever you are today, believer or not, I pray that you can hold fast to what is true and that no matter how dire your circumstances, be able to always look towards the Light. I leave you with a super-bouncy rendition of My Lighthouse. Have a good one.
Heart Of Man
Another week on our lovely planet. It’s been really odd seeing how everything seems to be speeding up. I suspect most people have a sense of this, even if we can’t quite quantify the feeling. In the UK we’ve of course had a coup d’etat in all but name. My guess is that Boris wasn’t down with whatever is planned for us next, so he had to go. Spoiler alert – if you want to go abroad, I’d do it before September.
Not that Boris was on the side of the angels by any means but it seems to me that his heart wasn’t really in it. Essentially, he’s the type of person who fancies being king of the world but whose sense of humour or irony, not to mention sloth, would always prevent him from ruthlessly crushing his enemies. So goodbye Boris, and good luck to us all. I guess the next incumbent is going to be someone who’s all in – don’t you just want to dance a jig at the prospect? Remember, it doesn’t matter who you vote for – the government always gets in. Nil desperandum, friends. For greater is He who is in us then he who is in the world. And it doesn’t matter if you believe that truth or not, the best part of truth is that it’s always true, as Kamala Harris might very well say 🙂
What really caught my imagination this week wasn’t British political shenanigans but the Georgia guidestones. If you’ve never heard of them, GIYF. They were blown up this week by person or persons unknown but I’ve always regarded them with astonishment. Bad enough that someone might write this hate letter to the human race – to carve it in stone and display it as a manifesto of malevolence is something else. To quote Jeremiah, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
The first guideline proposes maintaining the human population at 500 million ‘in perpetual balance with nature’, whatever that may mean. To put that in perspective for you, the combined population of the USA and Nigeria is more than 500 million. Everyone else is dead – all Finns, Estonians, Kenyans, Latvians, Congolese, Ghanains, Australians, Arabs of all nations, Indians, Chinese, etc etc Everyone you know or have ever met unless they are a citizen of those two countries is dead. All citizens of the 191 other countries, poof, gone.In fact you’d have to kill some citizens of the surviving countries to bring the number down to 500 million. A brave new world indeed, who wouldn’t wish to live in lonely splendour in this new Eden?
And just in case you really hate Arabs or Americans or whatever and would love to see them decimated, let me tell you – that 500 million? You’re not on that list. Your parents, children, neighbours, friends, none of them are on that list. Stop reading this and go to your local park/mall/market – nobody you meet will be on that list, they’re all dead. And how do we maintain that magic number – think about it. If you produce child number 500 million and 1 in this new Eden because you’ve had twins, what happens next? That’s a bit of a cheat – in new Eden, reproductive rights will only apply to the chosen and all babies will be gestated in incubators before being sent to the state nurseries so no need to worry!
Yeah, but sounds like a good idea when you think about it, you say. What about overpopulation, you say? For this, you need a trusty calculator. Forget that old chestnut about Texas and fitting in the world population. Give yourself some leeway, use the North and South American continents and then factor in that some of those people will make up families that can combine their allocated area. It’s not really cramped, is it? And you still have another five empty continents that you can dedicate to agriculture and commerce. To quote Gandhi, “There is enough [land, in this case] for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed.”
So, I don’t despair. Two reasons, our side wins – it’s written and it can’t be shaken so hurrah for humanity. And secondly, people are out there today, living their lives, having a drink with friends, enjoying their families, some at the beach, some at home, some in the garden etc etc. We are never in the world, without hope. As long as the beautiful Earth stands, insane festivals like the Tomato festival in Spain go on, and human hearts are filled with love and compassion, all will be well. All the images below are of Nigeria, barring the Spanish tomato festival photo. Those are some of the resources the government is squandering through neglect, but that’s a story for another day. Here endeth the sermon. It’s a beautiful world that is full of beautiful people and we are to be valued above rubies and precious stones. Have a good one.
Hot Off The Presses
a
Hi everyone, sorry I’ve been AWOL for a while but I’ve been a busy worker bee behind the scenes. I went to Nigeria for my brother’s wedding which was truly epic. The usual one week extravaganza. Let’s put it this way, I’ve lost my voice. In other news, AlaraApothecary has a double page feature in Somerset Living magagine which is amazing. The editor Jessica and her team have been so wonderful: all this has been cooking since February. I am so honoured that they included us in this month’s issue.
AlaraApothecary: onwards and upwards in Jesus’ name. The article is below. Thank you to all our incredible customers and supporters. Stockists, you know where we are…… Have a fabulous week.