Hello again everyone, and I hope you are having a good week. Whether or no – keep in touch! I love hearing from you all. Even complaints are welcome!
Well, I have to say there’s not a great deal that’s good in the news, although it’s always worth remembering that other countries probably have it very considerably worse than we do. Nevertheless, there is real concern over the economy, over politics, and over climate change, just for starters.
What can a good Christian do? Well, we can pray. We can keep faith in a God who loves us individually, and who gives us so many blessings. And we can help others as best we can.
But enough of these home spun homilies.
You all want to hear all about Bob the racing pigeon, and I am very happy to oblige.
Because it wasn’t all bad in the newspapers.
Now, can I just be honest, and say that The Sun tabloid newspaper is not at the very top of my reading list? But it does have the advantage of great pictures and well, let’s just say, direct, rumbustious reporting. Particularly when it comes to lost racing pigeons:
Apparently, owner Alan Todd, from Gateshead, was desperate to get Bob back. Because he’s a £1,000 champion racing pigeon, who took a left-winged turn off Guernsey, and ended up in Alabama U S of A. The home of the brave, and the land of the free.
Quite how he got there, nobody knows. The Sun proudly boasts that he flew the 4,000 miles single-winged. More measured journalism suggests he may have simply hitched a ride on a boat.
But let’s not split feathers…
Because no one really knows why he took that quite serious, and incorrect, left-winged turn off Guernsey. Perhaps he was following one of these new satnav‘s, or drones, or something.
Anyway, he ended up in America, and his owner was distraught, thinking him lostforever.
Well, a concerned animal lover in Alabama took him to a shelter, where staff identified him from his leg band. They then contacted the owner, who jumped on a plane to bring his boy home. Sponsored by the Sun I believe, or at least it was, according to their own flamboyant reporting.
But this is the bit that really caught my eye.
Now back home Alan has now retired Bob saying “The thought of anything happening to him after all the help people have given is too much! “
Well hold on a minute. Is it just me.? Don’t some of us have a problem with hiding the best silver in the posh cutlery canteen? Or the best china in the front room glass cabinet, in case it gets broken? With some grandparents I know, the whole front room gets mothballed, and used for special events only. Which usually means never, unless and until someone dies!
I mean, what are we going to do with all our best stuff? Who’s going to get rid of it when we get to the stage we can use it no more? Charity shop? Recycling centre? EBay? House clearers? The dump!!!???
Surely, the best things are not best kept mothballed, but used, simply because they are the best!
The national team which boasts the prize batsmen, or the best goal scorer, is surely ill-advised to wrap that person up in cotton wool and stick them in a corner, never to be used again! Surely the whole point of being one of the best in the world is to prove it, and show your value, to team, to country, to yourself? Or am I missing something?
And, of course, you probably know where I’m going with this. Jesus said exactly the same thing in terms of NOT hiding your light under a bushel.
The Gospel is there to be used; it is there to be declared; it is there to be proclaimed; it is there to be lived.
Enough of this false modesty and closet Christianity! Let’s get out there and show off our skills to a hungry and a needy world, who need love and reassurance and hope.
That’s it for me.
Having dealt with the plant and now the animal kingdom, who knows what we will move on to the next?
Tune in next week and find out!
May God bless you all.