Little Canada

Little Canada was founded by Jean-Louis Brenninkmeijer an immigrant who had a vision to build a model world inspired by a visit to Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg. He reached out to model railway clubs to try to find people with the skills to develop the idea. He met Dave MacLean a civil engineer who had a life long passion for model railways. 

I am always interested in the collaboration that can emerge when people with vision have the humility to recognise their limitations and seek specialist help and technical expertise. In this case their shared enthusiasm has grown a community that has opened a world.

Transcript

Day 87

Today we took Jamie and Sophie to Little Canada. It is a tourist attraction with a series of miniature scenes of different places in Canada. We were able to visit Niagara, Toronto, The Golden Horseshoe, Ottawa and Quebec. A number of other cities and regions are planned to be added in the future. We enjoyed our visit. It was interesting looking at miniature landscapes of places we have recently been. It enabled us to see familiar sites from a fresh point of view.

Part of the intrigue of exploring miniature worlds is the shift in perspective that comes from an unusual experience of relative size. It is a theme explored in culture from “Alice in Wonderland” to “Honey I Shrank the Kids” and many places in between. Perhaps most famously in “Gulliver’s Travels” although it is interesting that it is the episode in Lilliput rather than Brobdingnag which has captured popular imagination through the years. The idea of being larger than life is seeingly more captivating than joining the borrowers. (Although Little Canada does have a Littlization Station where you can be scanned and have a tiny 3D model of yourself placed in a location of your choosing). We did not indulge!

Little Canada was founded by Jean-Louis Brenninkmeijer an immigrant who had a vision to build a model world inspired by a visit to Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg. He reached out to model railway clubs to try to find people with the skills to develop the idea. He met Dave MacLean a civil engineer who had a life long passion for model railways. 

I am always interested in the collaboration that can emerge when people with vision have the humility to recognise their limitations and seek specialist help and technical expertise. In this case their shared enthusiasm has grown a community that has opened a world.

Our visit to Little Canada today made me think a bit more about Big Canada. 

Little Canada has some great values around creating amazement, cultivating curiosity, celebrating family, being better together and being serious about fun. Many of these resonate with some of the values InterVarsity is exploring as we seek to grow faith among young people across our nation.

Their vision is:

“To entertain our guests with a magical journey of discovery through Canada in miniature, that will be amazing, exciting and meaningful for all ages.”

Their mission is stated as:

“To evoke a sense of wonder and curiosity about Canada.”

I really like the way some of these ideas are articulated. “A journey of discovery that will be amazing, exciting and meaningful that evokes a sense of wonder and curiosity” would be interesting ideas for a church or mission to engage with. The focus would be on Christ rather than Canada and the wonder would be an encounter with One greater than us rather than some smaller. 

Our visit to Little Canada today made me think a bit more about Big God.

The prophet Isaiah speaks of the frailty of people who fade and wither being totally different from God’s word that endures forever. He comments on the limitations of human knowledge in contrast to divine wisdom and the transience of earthly power in comparison to the might of God. 

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.” (40:21-23)

Shifting perspective is vital to see clearly and to avoid losing wonder through familiarity. Isaiah like Little Canada reminds us that we are small and that there is more beyond our limited horizon. 

Our visit to Little Canada today made me think a bit more about little me.

A quote on the wall near the exit drew my attention. It read; “Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Let curiosity guide you as you make sense of what you see”. I have spent a fair amount of time in the last three months looking down at my feet so it was a helpful reminder to me about my focus and my perspective. 

I cannot allow my experience of living in a smaller world through Covid to diminish my view of God. As I continue to live in a yet more shrunken world with my current limitations I see the danger of my hopes and faith becoming contained within a limited horizon. If I limit God to my immediate situation I will limit God in my immediate situation. 

Later on in the same chapter Isaiah talks about the weariness, stumbling, weakness and tiredness that is an understandable and expected part of human experience. But God is not like us, he is neither defined by our frailties nor limited by our capacities. The Lord expands our horizons, changes our perspective and brings restoration, renewal and strength. 

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (40:28-31) 

The Lord knows what is going on. He cares what happens to us. He is with us and is for us.

Today I am thankful for a visit to a place of exploration and inspiration. I am grateful for the example of a team and for the realisation of a still unfolding vision. 

I am also thankful for ongoing shifts in perspective.

I still can’t walk without support but I may be able to soar like an eagle. 

Psalm 87 speaks of Zion, the City of God. The psalmist sings of the reputation of the city that God has established. John Newton’s famous hymn captures some of the sentiments of this song.

“Glorious things of you are spoken,
Zion, city of our God;
he whose word cannot be broken
formed you for his own abode.
On the Rock of Ages founded,
what can shake your sure repose?
With salvation's walls surrounded,
you may smile at all your foes.

See, the streams of living waters,
springing from eternal love,
well supply your sons and daughters
and all fear of want remove.
Who can faint while such a river
ever will their thirst assuage?
Grace which, like the Lord, the giver,
never fails from age to age.

Saviour, since of Zion's city
I thro' grace a member am,
let the world deride or pity,
I will glory in your name.
Fading are the world's vain pleasures,
all their boasted pomp and show;
solid joys and lasting treasures
none but Zion's children know.”