Along York Lane in the Sydney CBD are alcoves and recessed doorways set into the buildings.

It was in one of these recessed doorways where a man named Karl used to live (or rather, sleep).

Hundreds of people passed Karl every day - and sadly, in 2013, Karl died in his sleep, exposed on York Lane.

However, in a remarkable postscript, his long-lost brother, who had been searching for Karl for decades, finally found him.

And he brought him home.

"My son," the father said, "you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." - Gospel of Luke, Chapter 15

The gap between what an Ibis is made for and what it does in the city becomes very apparent once you see it in its natural habitat. 

The Ibis is made to roam marshlands and use their elegant bills to dig for crayfish and mussels - not for scraps of rubbish in bins. But like these birds, we also often lose sight of the type of world we are made for and how we are meant to be. 

We can’t find the answer to who we are meant to be by looking within ourselves, but we can find it in God.

‘Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love’ the Psalmist writes in Psalm 51.

‘Cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be clean … create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.’

No matter how well things may seem, everyone faces times of testing where every day can feel like wading through thick sludge. 

But these challenges can also sometimes be, like molasses, unexpectedly sweet.

God is never far off - we can talk to him at any time. 

But sometimes, strange as it may seem, casting our anxieties on the creator of all things feels like the hardest thing in the world to do. 

So much of our world is built on hierarchical relationships.

If one is of more excellent status, importance, or class than another, that can dictate so much of their interactions.

A meeting with the late Henry Kissinger two decades ago brought this reality into focus for our host - and reminded her how this is anathema to the Creator of all things.

The One true God laid down his life for all, for the slave and the free.

A verse in Hebrews reminds us that when we help a passerby, there might be more going on than we expect.

"Don't forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing, some have unwittingly entertained angels."

However, what if angels have entertained us?

What if we've encountered these celestial warriors and never realised?

More often than not, libraries collect and organise works of human creativity, intellect and industry.

They are repositories of finished works.

Books and recordings, films and magazines and many more - all discrete units of human creation.

Archives, in contrast, provide us with the backdrop to the works, the settings, the background, and the working out of ideas from which a job may have come.

Welcome to a new season of Small Wonders!

This is the first of a two-part series on the power of words.

People read for different reasons.

For some people, reading is work; for others, it's a hobby.

Sometimes, reading can cause something within us to shift; we might go from wanting to read to needing to read. 

Our lives can suddenly - unexpectedly - become intertwined with the words on the page - and our experiences become things we might feel the need to share with authors we've never met.

Welcome to the final episode of season 3 of Small Wonders!

A new year approaches - and for many, a new set of resolutions.

Reading, going to the gym, travelling, lifestyle changes: all of us have a “possible self” that we strive towards.

It turns out we’ve been making New Year resolutions for a very long time - at least 4,000 years in fact, according to ancient Babylonian records.

Humans have always pursued personal growth.

We’ve also spent millennia breaking New Year resolutions.

However, it's not as dire as you might think: statistics show that most people who make resolutions keep at least part of them.

The notion of the possible self is often related to both hopes - and fears - for the future.

Hope and fear: the possible is connected to them both.

The possible self is also a theme in the Bible, but a possible self is firmly reliant on Him through whom all things are possible.

The way to the best possible self - the eternal one - comes through the humble servant, encountered in the Gospels.

"Going a little farther, (Jesus) fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Matthew 26: 39

The Summerbell Window - a beautiful stained glass window - sits in the Holy Trinity Church in Millers Point, Sydney.

It's not like the other windows: it shows a stormy sea, with Jesus calming the tempest.

It commemorates the loss of the Yarra Yarra - a steamer captained by William Geoge Summerbell, the namesake of the window - which disappeared on the morning of the 15th of July 1877, after encountering a terrible storm off the coast of Newcastle.

Witness to the tragedy was Williams's father, Thomas.

It was the following year that the Summerbell Window was erected in Holy Trinity Church.

Jesus didn't calm this storm, nor did He walk on water that morning.

The window itself acknowledges this.

"Save me Oh God, for the waters have come into my soul."

The storms we face are real, and the grief we encounter can be like an unrelenting flood.

A storm at sea can bring about an internal storm of pain.

But knowledge of the truth - of God - can help us face this storm in a new light.

The Psalms attest to this.

Save me, O God,
 for the waters have come up to my neck.

 I sink in the miry depths,

where there is no foothold.
I have come into the deep waters;
the floods engulf me.
 I am worn out calling for help;

my throat is parched.
My eyes fail,
looking for my God.

Yet at the same time:

I will praise God’s name in song
and glorify him with thanksgiving.
This will please the
Lord more than an ox,
more than a bull with its horns and hooves

The poor will see and be glad—

you who seek God, may your hearts live!
The Lord hears the needy and does not despise his captive people.

Psalm 69: 1-3, 30-33