Friday 27 November 2009

None of us can see into the future, thank God. But, whatever the future may hold for me, there's a little bit of me that sincerely hopes God never appoints me to be a sign writer. The reason for my concern is that I'm a merciless spotter of other people's mistakes on signs. I was quite disappointed when a local taxi firm spotted their mistake and stopped offering to act as a "currier" rather than a "courier". I couldn't help laughing when a shop on the high street offered to "unloke" your mobile phone.

However, my latest gem had perfect spelling. Not a word was out of place. Not only that - but it was in a wonderful strategic location so that everyone on the busiest road through this particular town could see it as they swept through. On the side of the local theatre it said in huge letters "coming soon - the unexpected guest". Now I know its just the name of a play, but you've got to admit it has a certain irony. How one earth can a guest be unexpected when all and sundry are told about their arrival?

The Bible has stacks to say about the return of Jesus. Some of its pretty weird - with warnings about cataclysmic storms, earthquakes and more besides. But the key thread running through it is that if we know he's coming but not when ,we should live all the time as if we were ready for him. A friend of mine who is a bishop has a little postcard stuck above his computer which says "Jesus is coming - look busy!" I suppose that's about the size of it. If Jesus were about to come at any minute we wouldn't want him to catch us doing anything hurtful, or destructive or unkind.

I'm not sure who designed the bishop's postcard, but I do know someone who's famous words on the subject put it beautifully. Martin Luther King, so well known to thousands because of his 'I have a dream' speech, also said the following:

"Live each day as if Christ died yesterday, rose today, and was coming back tomorrow."

That's not a bad way to enter the day really, is it? To know that someone gave their all for you yesterday, to feel that their goodness wasn't snuffed out today, and to look forward to seeing them tomorrow seems like a good recipe to me.