Holding it all together

This week I have been enjoying the comforts of the Willersley Castle Hotel in Derbyshire. It is situated in a very rural and stunningly beautiful setting (if you are a facebook friend you may already have seen a few images of the area which I have uploaded).

Willersley Castle is on the edge of the village of Cromford, which is principally known for its historical connection with Richard Arkwright, and the Cromford Mill which he built here in 1771. It also houses an extensive second hand bookshop which I much enjoyed perusing!

I should point out that I wasn't on holiday, but was attending a 4 day residential course on using multimedia in worship, run by Mike Bossingham of the Family Friendly Churches Trust. It is often said that people tend to have a much better memory of what they see than what they hear. Preachers and worship leaders are increasingly using modern forms of visual images in worship, and I thought that it was about time I learned a little more about the whole issue.

Of course, as with any training event, the proof of any benefit can only be seen in what happens as a result. I have been to several training events over the years at which I seemed to learn a great deal at the time but ultimately the learning was lost because it was not put into practical use. Hopefully this one will prove more fruitful in the long term.

One of the memories which I know will remain with me forever came at almost the last minute. We were preparing to pack up for lunch after the final session when Mike happened to mention laminins. I can't remember ever having heard about them. Wikipedia states that "laminins are a family of glycoproteins that are an integral part of the structural scaffolding in almost every tissue of an organism." Put simply, laminins are what hold us together and stop us becoming a blobby mass or falling apart! Remarkably, the image at the top of this page is what a laminin looks like. Remind you of anything? Paul's words to the Colossians come to mind:

'He [Jesus Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things HOLD TOGETHER.'

Ain't God just amazing?