My little brother (who's not little any longer) got a job last week. That's not anything hugely special in itself. But on Tuesday evening I found out about something that made me very glad. It turns out his office is located in one of the poshest only-cool-people-work-here-blocks which - and here's the awesome part - happens to be just across the street from my church! I mean, I know Tallinn is no London but there are still almost half a million people living and working here. So what are the odds of two of us working in the city centre about 300 meters from each other! This is just too cool. And as his salary is astronomical compared to mine (an obvious result of different career paths - that's what happens when someone decides to get a MA in IT rather than theology lol), I count on him to pay for our numerous future lunches and tea dates haha! But seriously speaking, I haven't really seen him that much over the past years. When I was in Newbold getting my degree, he was in Copenhagen getting his. So we mostly saw each other during Christmas time and occasionally over the summer break. And thus I'm really looking forward to hanging out with him more. Oh my. Little brothers grow up. :)

--

I had a new year's resolution last year - I wanted to read 30 books in 2014. I'm in the middle of book No 25 at the moment so I'm doing pretty well, thank you very much. It's Frederick Buechner (again!) and his marvelous Peculiar Treasures: A Biblical Who's Who. As it says on the cover, in that book Buechner "profiles more than 125 of the Bible's most holy and profane people - and one whale", lol! It's such a joyful reading I suspect it's actually meant to be a children's book. But it also has its serious moments. One of which I want to share with you. Under letter G there's a short paragraph about angel Gabriel and it's so beautiful and profound I almost teared up when I read it. Here it is.

"She struck the angel Gabriel as hardly old enough to have a child at all, let alone this child, but he'd been entrusted with a message to give her, and he gave it. He told her what the child was to be named, and who he was to be, and something about the mystery that was to come upon her. "You mustn't be afraid, Mary," he said. As he said it, he only hoped she wouldn't notice that beneath the great, golden wings he himself was trembling with fear to think that the whole future of creation hung now on the answer of a girl."

Wow.