Emerging Spirit @ The United Church of Canada Emerging Spirit @ The United Church of Canada

"We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand."  Isaiah 64: 8

This past summer our family was looking through a pottery shop in New England.  My wife Laura was admiring the wide variety of colours, shapes and sizes of pottery pieces for sale while I tried to keep our two active children from breaking anything.  We decided to buy a small, inexpensive piece of pottery to bring home but could not agree on which item to select.  "That one is too big.  That one has an odd shape.  That one is not as pretty.  That one looks broken."  Finally, our taste and budget harmoniously selected a fine piece of pottery for our dining room table.  We exited the shop leaving behind every other creation for sale.

The Globe and Mail hit our front door with its usual 5:00 a.m. thud, courtesy of our faceless, minivan driving, newspaper carrier and his now familiar side arm pitch out the passenger side window. 

The arrival of the newspaper usually coincides with the wake up of our two young children, and so I once again began scanning the headlines just as the sun was thinking about getting up in the eastern sky. The news suggested that this latest federal election campaign was a struggle between whether to reach people most effectively through "The Brand" of the party or "The Leader." It appears, as our political leaders rush to don cardigans like Mr. Rogers, and play the family card, that the latter of the two strategies has won out.