Coco Calling No.274 - The Simplicity of Real Faith

Being somewhat brighter than your average bird, I like to find things to keep myself amused. And I’ve always been fascinated by human speech because of its depth and richness. My feathered friends tend to use the same calls over and over again, -that is, of course, unless you’re a super-intelligent parrot that learns human talk. So, you can imagine just how shocked I was to discover a new language developed by pigeons!  Yes, pigeons of all things! The phrase book said: “Pidgin English for Travellers to Papua New Guinea.” Well, all I can say is that if pigeons really were behind it, then they couldn’t even spell their name correctly!

But, I do have to begrudgingly admit that ‘Pidgin English’ has proved to be very useful in Papua New Guinea, where it’s helped to unify more than 7000 sub-species of human, each of whom has their own unique language. And it’s certainly a language that is full of fun, so I suppose this means that parrots like me have to like it, even if pigeons are behind it. Let me give you some examples of what I mean…...

 If a human female was introducing her husband to someone, she’d say: “Man bilong me.” Facial hair is called “mausgras,” and if you want a haircut, it’s called “katim gras.” A lady with some lipstick has a “pen bilong maus” while her husband who’s spent too long in the pub might say “mi spak!” If you happen to be staying with someone, then your host is “bos bilong haus,” and their bathroom is the “rum waswas.” But I’ve saved my two favourites ‘til last….. a mosquito is called a “natnat” while a gentleman’s toilet is a “haus pekpek man.”

So you might be wondering how all this ties in with my Christian blog? Well, Pidgin English is a lot simpler than many languages, and I reckon God would approve of how some of the key Christian words translate. For example, ‘God’ is “God bilong yumi.” And that’s it in a nutshell; God really does belong to you and me. And the Pidgin for ‘Sacrifice’ is quite simply “give up,” and the phrase for ‘Salvation’ is “save you.” So both of these spell out exactly what Jesus did for everyone.

So maybe we should all like ‘Pidgin’ after all. Because the Christian faith should never be overcomplicated; it’s message is clear and simple and for everybody to hear wherever they happen to be. And just like those humans in P.N.G., we should fill our hearts with “lave” for one another and “bilip” (which means to believe it or have faith!)

“O God,….make me a child again, even before I die; give me back the simple faith, the clear vision of the child that holds its father’s hand.”

(Israel Zangwill: [1864-1926]: British author of Russian-Jewish descent)

“No one can grow if he does not accept his smallness.”

(Pope Francis: [1936-2025] Leader of the Catholic Church until his recent passing)

“And he said: ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven.”

(Matthew 18:3)

 

NOTE: Coco is now off on his Summer holidays for two weeks, so his next blog will be sent out on Wednesday 10th September.