How did you go on with the Penguin Quiz? Let's see how many p-p-p-points you p-p-p-p-picked up.
1.
This is Feathers McGraw from Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers.
2.
This is Chilly Willy. You wouldn't believe what I found when I googled him/her. Oh, you would?
3.
This is the Penguin off the Penguin books.
4.
This one's Frobisher, comic strip companion to Colin Baker's Doctor Who in the mid-1980s. If you got that, you should probably get out more. Or stay in more. Either is good.
5.
This is Pingu, and yes, he's mopping up his sister's urine.
6.
These are Penguin chocolate bars.
7.
These are the Penguins of Madagascar. Their names elude me. A man's brain has only so much space, and I find I still know the words to Don't Turn Around by Aswad from 1988, so remembering four penguin names is clearly not a possibility. My terabyte is all used up.
8.
This is Mumble from Happy Feet. Of course.
9.
From the popular Octonauts series, this is Peso.
10.
And finally we have Wheezy the Penguin from Toy Story. 2, mostly.
Penguins, it emerges, come in all shapes and sizes, from the Little Blue to the Adelie to the Rockhopper. Emperors and Kings. Galapagos penguins. And there was me thinking they were a monochrome population the world over. Can you match the following pictures to their breed?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
There's a chinstrap penguin, a macaroni penguin, an emperor penguin, an adelie penguin, a little blue penguin, a galapagos penguin and a gentoo penguin. If nothing else, please get the chinstrap and the little blue right…
Penguins may be largely black and white, but they're certainly not monochrome…
…and neither are the followers of Jesus. Much as people might like to dismiss us, much as the new atheist critics like to use a broad brush-stroke to generalise wildly, much as some would like to choose the worstest silliest Christian ever and consign us all to perdition off the back of that one, we're just not.
Followers of Jesus come in more shapes and sizes than penguins. There are those of us who love exuberant worship, those who love reflective worship, those who love both… There are followers of all ages and shades of everything.
Basically, be proud of your diverseness, whether you like a literal six-day creation or a billions-of-years affair; whether you love organ voluntaries or some gentle strumming or some wholesome Quaker silence.
Don't let critics tar you with one brush. Surprise them
And don't let any other Christians tell you that the church has a narrow DNA either. Last time I looked, the only qualification needed for being a Christian was loving and following Jesus. Nothing else. Don't let anyone disqualify you - and don't disqualify anyone else.
As for penguins, it doesn't matter if they look like Craig David
or Dennis Healey
they're still penguins. And whatever your shade of belief or belonging, nothing stops you belonging to Jesus in your diverse glory.
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