Bill and Ben, the Flowerpot Men

Today, in my mind's eye, I saw a reminder of a preschool TV programme I used to watch in the early 1960s called Watch with Mother, which had different stories every week day. My favourite was Bill and Ben, the Flowerpot Men. They had a little friend called Weed which was a beautiful flower which in my memory was yellow and white but in fact TV was in black and white in those days! Well, now we know it would be totally incorrect to call a programme "Watch with Mother". Attitudes change over time and sometimes rightly so, as in this case. However, we can also get hung up on details that are not necessarily worth fighting over. For instance, someone could fuss that a flower shouldn't be called "Weed". This has made me reflect on truths as we know them, some of which are vital, some of which vary over time and culture whilst others are really not worth spending time being offended over. We need wisdom in discerning the differences. In the gospel of John 4:16 we read Jesus as saying, "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me". The absolute truth is that Jesus directs us to God but our religious ways can be so different in how we address Jesus and how we follow him to God. Who is right? In fact do we even need to call ourselves "Christian"? Let's be careful in holding on to absolute truths but not necessarily getting hung up on truths which are not so vital in being applied in only one prescriptive way.