Richard Littledale
Richard Littledale
radio microphone
BBC Radio 2Janice Long Show
Alex Lester Show
Pause for Thought
Richard Littledale: Series 22, Number 5
previous edition | index | next edition

Friday 12 April 2013

One way and another, have been doing a lot of cycling recently. Of course, when you are on a bike you go a lot slower than you would in a car. I my case, you go considerably slower. This means that you notice things which pass you by in a car. I have noticed, for instance, that the local swan sanctuary doesn't smell nearly as pleasant as it looks. I have noticed that the surface of some roads owes more to lunar exploration than smooth passage. I have noticed, too, one or two amusing road signs. The other day I was pedalling along a small back road by the riverbank when I came across the following sign:

Slow pedestrian crossing

My first thought was that it sounded like an instruction, telling said pedestrian to take it easy and not to cross the road too fast. My second thought was that it appeared to refer to just one person. Could this really be a personalized road sign, intended, perhaps, for the person in the small riverside cottage just there on the towpath? I am sure it wasn't, but it made me think.

One of the things I love about the stories of Jesus is that he seems to treat everybody as individuals, and deeply precious individuals at that. Sometimes it's a leper, avoided by everyone except him. Sometimes its a troubled soul, crying out and shut away from society. Sometimes its a loose woman, or a sticky-fingered tax collector. Everybody gets the same individual attention, though. On one famous occasion a grubby little tax collector had climbed a tree to get a better view of Jesus as he passed by. To his surprise, Jesus stopped right under his tree and told him to "come on down". The individual attention brought out the best in the little tax collector, and things changed for the better that day. Heartened to be treated like a human being, he repaid all those from whom he had stolen, and gave away half his ill-gotten gain to the poor.

Next time I pass by that sign on my bike, I shall keep an eye out for that particular slow pedestrian. In the meantime, perhaps I should get a "slow cyclist" sign for the back of my bike?

rjl signature


© BBC 2013
This talk by Richard Littledale was first broadcast as BBC Radio 2's night time "Pause for Thought"
at 01:30 during the Janice Long show and at 03:30 during the Alex Lester show.
It is reproduced here by permission of the BBC.