The View from the Vicarage - May 2010

Another: On the 1st day, God created the dog and said:
‘Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of 20 years.'
The dog said: 'That's a long time to be barking. How about only 10 years and I'll give you back the other 10?'
So God agreed.
On the 2nd day, God created the monkey and said:
'Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a 20 year life span.'
The monkey said: 'Monkey tricks for 20 years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back 10 like the dog did?'
And God agreed.
On the 3rd day, God created the cow and said:
‘You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of 60 years.'
The cow said: 'That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for 60 years. How about 20 and I'll give back the other forty?'
And God agreed again.
On the 4th day, God created humans and said:
'Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you 20 years.'
But the human said: ‘Only 20 years? Could you possibly give me my 20, the 40 the cow gave back, the 10 the monkey gave back, and the 10 the dog gave back; that makes 80, okay?'
‘Okay,' said God, 'You asked for it.'
So that is why for our first 20 years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next 40 years we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next 10 years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren and for the last 10 years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.
Life has now been explained to you.
Funny… but it also raises a serious point – because if that’s all life can offer then God’s messing with us!
But it’s not…
God sent His Son Jesus into His creation to show us how we can live a life that is rich, satisfying, a blessing to others, full of hope and love and where death is not an end but a doorway to a new life. He offers a new life so good we’d be completely crazy to miss out on it!
So why do so many of us fail to accept the gift? Are we suspicious that something so good must be too good to be true?
God promises He will only give to His creation good things. God promises a taste of life in its fullness now and He promises the whole renewed world to be our playground, our ‘heaven’, when we die.
He promises all this to those who follow the Way shown to us by Jesus.
Do you know the Way?

Shalom
Revd Derek Witchell
01296 682320