It's not about the whale

Jonah is not about the whale. But try and ignore it; the elephant in the room so to speak.

We had two days to ponder Jonah in the art workshops at Middleton in July as a follow on from Bible month which had run on the theme of Jonah in June.

Faith, forgiveness and racism all meaty themes, but the whale (or big fish) kept surfacing and splashing about as we tried working with willow, clay and paint (not all at the same time I hasten to add). Someone recounted the story as a poem and one cartoonist depicted Jonah showing his displeasure at having to eat Krill for three days in a row.

There was time for discussion and chat around the issues raised in the book of Jonah and plenty of refreshments to eat and drink whilst we pondered what to do if we ignored the whale....

Well, we try to go in one direction and God steers us in another, it's so hard to swim against the tide.

There are some pictures available (once I've gained permission to use them) that show that some were more successful than those whose pictures appear here.

My only consolation is that Jonah might think that for him the whale played a bigger part in this story. That's assuming one swallows the story as a factual account.