Tuesday 29 September 2009

Just recently I spent a couple of weeks in rural Brittany. It was wonderful - stone cottages, bright flowers, lively markets and all that wonderful French food and wine. For me it's the little things that make the holiday - the smile from a next-door neighbour, the chat over the market stall, or the early morning cycle ride to the baker's shop to buy breakfast. This year the baker was a couple of miles away - decent cycle ride for someone like me who gets far too little exercise as it is.

On the second week of the holiday, the friendly baker shut up shop for her annual holiday, and custom transferred to the other baker in the town. What a contrast! The lady who ran the other shop was not, as you might say, of the sunniest disposition. My English charms and my quirky French accent simply couldn't break through that dour exterior and force a smile. Or at least, not until the rain came.

One morning I was half way to the baker, a mile from home, when the rain started. I couldn't decide whether to cycle home getting wet, or cycle the same distance to the baker's. I decided on the second option, and pedalled off down the hill into the driving rain. By the time I got to the bakery, my front was sopping wet, with hair and clothes clinging to me, and my back was almost dry. I squelched across the immaculate shiny floor of the shop, dripping as I went, and stood before my friend the grumpy baker. 'A bit damp out', I commented, and there it was - a tiny victory. With a little half smile, she replied that it was "just a bit", and then charged me for my croissants all the same.

Sometimes it takes the worst of circumstances to bring out the best in people, doesn't it? Older people still talk about the 'blitz spirit', when people all pulled together and made the best of it. The Apostle Paul, who had his own fair share of bad luck with imprisonments and shipwrecks, wrote that 'God works all things together for good'. If that is true, then there is truly no circumstance where God cannot be found.

Of course that doesn't mean that we are always sunny and full of joy. "Hallelujah" was not the first word on my lips when the rain started falling, believe me. But there's usually something we can do to find the good in the bad - a point which my sour faced baker seemed to appreciate!