Finding our Middle – 40 Days with Anna

Day 5 – Monday after 1st Sunday of Lent 

To Read:

During the next few weeks we tried to find out by a bit of cunning questioning where Anna lived.  The gentle approach, the sideways approach, the sneaky approach, all proved to be useless.

It seemed quite possible that she had just dropped out of heaven.

I was ready to believe this to be true, but Stan, being much more practical than me, didn’t agree at all.  The only certain thing we knew was that she wasn’t going to no bleeding cop shop.  

By this time I was sure that I had initiated this idea.  After all, you don’t find an orchid and then put it in the cellar.  It wasn’t that any of us had anything against the cops, far from it.  In those days cops were more like official friends, even if they did clip you round the ear with a glove full of dried peas if they caught you up to any funny stuff.  No, as I said, you can’t lock a sunbeam in the dark.

Besides, we all wanted her to stay.

From the Scriptures:

An argument arose among them concerning which one of them was the greatest. ⁴⁷ But Jesus, aware of their inner thoughts, took a little child and put it by his side ⁴⁸ and said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me, for the least among all of you is the greatest.’  (Luke 9v46-48)

To Reflect:

In so-called mature democracies there is no way Fynn’s family would have been able to get away with Anna simply staying with them.  Quite rightly the cop shop and Social Services would be involved.  Anna would be swooped up and taken into a formal care setting so that her circumstances could be investigated, blame apportioned, attempts at reconciliation made, Anna restored to a home from which she ran away or passed on to live life in a children’s home.  Fynn’s home would not even be considered as a suitable place in which an, apparently, fragile child such as Anna could flourish.

This is not the case across the world and many cultures, often looked down upon by those who proclaim themselves to be more ‘civiized’, are much better at caring for the least, the last, and the lost than those who have all the systems in place.  As they say, ‘The State makes a poor parent’.

Sometimes there is an outbreak of common sense.  Why remove a child from its familiar environment if an aunt or grandparent or other close relative can offer support and care?  Given a little extra support from skilled Social Workers time and time again it has been shown that each of us blooms best where we are planted.  And Anna, beautiful orchid that she became, chose to plant herself in the hearts of Fynn and his family.

But this is not all Anna’s doing.  For her to prosper others had to prepare a space for her, which in Fynn’s home meant everyone else having to ‘shove up a bit’ so that she could squeeze in.  And this they did gladly because they wanted to help her grow in a place of safety.  There reward was that a sunbeam now lived amongst them.

I think Fynn’s mum had a motto for mealtimes and for her home, ‘There’s always room for one more’.  One that served her, her family, and Anna well.  When we learn to ‘shove up a bit’ to make room for another mouth at the dinner table we may end up with less food on our plates but our hearts and souls will be more replete.

As we journey on with Mister God we will discover that God is far bigger than we have ever imagined and, like the young boy with his bag meal of five loaves and two fishes, all we need to do is offer the little we have for God is able to build a bigger table…

Please Note:  These reflections are also published on my blog: suffolkvicarhomes.com on Bluesky as @suffolkvicar.bsky.social, and on my public Facebook page  Suffolk Vicar – Rev Andrew Dotchin.  If you would like them as a daily email please send a request to revdotchin@gmail.com

If you have enjoyed reading them please make a donation to The Clergy Support Trust who provided a  generous grant to help me find the space to compose them.

Acknowledgements:

Quotes from the book ‘Mister God, This is Anna’ are Copyright © Fynn 1975

Illustrations from the book ‘Mister God, This is Anna’ and ‘Anna and the Black Knight’ are Copyright © Pappas 1975

Psalm Prayers from Common Worship: Daily Prayer, material from which is included here, is copyright © The Archbishops’ Council 2005 and published by Church House Publishing

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.  Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

These Reflections, ‘Finding our Middle – 40 Days with Anna’ are copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2025 and may be reproduced without charge on condition that the source is acknowledged.