Monday 30 June 2010

When you're bored, all kinds of things become interesting, don't you think? A little while ago I found myself stuck in a hospital waiting room for some considerable time. After a while the appeal of the well-thumbed celebrity gossip magazines began to pall, and I looked round for some other source of amusement. The sign on the toilet door immediately grabbed my attention because someone had very carefully scratched off the head on the pictogram so that there was the outline of a man with no head. Now I know they deal with all kinds of injuries in a place like that - but presumably a headless man would be unable to see the sign anyway.

Still pondering on this, I went upstairs to the ward and had to wait all over again. On the wall by one of the side rooms was another sign which really caught my eye. I had to read it two, three times before I believed it. At the top of the switch it said "day" and at the bottom it said "night". I think it was intended to change the lighting settings on the ward. But imagine if it really did switch from day to night. What a powerful switch to be tucked away on the wall in a local hospital. If I threw it the other way would I instantly cause the sun to sink below the horizon and turn day to night? As my finger twitched near the switch I felt a bit like the director in that film 'the Truman show' From his control room up on high I could remember him calling out "cue sunrise" as the artificial sun rose on his vast movie set.

What would it be like to have that kind of power, I wonder? How would it feel to be able to declare "night now" or "sunrise now"? What would it be like to point to a distant hill and say "rain there", or to point to our own back garden and say "sun here"? I think after the first few minutes it would be quite terrifying, actually. The power would be thrilling, but the responsibility would be huge. However would you get it right?

When I first came to faith as a teenager there was a song we used to sing which was old even then. It went like this:

God holds the key to all unknown and I am glad
If someone else should hold the key
Or if he trusted it to me
I would be sad

I don't think I'm up for playing God really. If I did we'd probably all end up in hospital! Much better for him to be the best kind of God he can be and me to be the best kind of man I can be, I reckon.