WHAT DID YOU SAY?

Communication is a very mysterious thing. We always think that other people are going to understand us until we struggle with French or some other language, and realise it is not so easy after all. “Did he realise we wanted a double room? Is she going to bring what we think we ordered from the menu?” It is really amazing that these sounds I make with my lungs and vocal chords and my mouth people seem to respond to - at least I think they do. But have you ever tried to get through to someone on the telephone and you can hear them but they can't hear you? They just keep saying 'Hello, hello!' and then after a while they give up and put the phone down. It must be like that for God with us. He's not getting through to us. Only he doesn't give up trying.

If you use email you will know that sometimes you have difficulty in accessing attachments. The message is there but it is not getting on to your screen. The problem isn't with the message but with the computer. Perhaps you haven't got the right programme to receive the message, or when you do get to the attachment it is a page of unreadable gobbledegook. But there's nothing wrong with the message itself. This is what the prophets of the Bible, and Jesus himself often say. There's nothing wrong with the message. The message is the word of God. The trouble is with the reception. You have ears, but you don't listen; you see but you don't perceive. If you have ever talked to someone who plainly isn't listening to you - and who hasn't? - you know what they mean.

Yet the strange thing is that the message is so good, so heart-warming, and full of hope. You shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song. So wrote Isaiah [NIV, LDS, KJV] to people in exile, oppressed by an alien regime. Come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest, said Jesus [Matt 11:28, NIV, LDS, KJV]. Strange, isn't it, how few people seem to hear what's being said? Funny thing, getting through to people.

Christopher Lamb

[Sorry, we had a computer failure, so it's back to scanning and monochrome for the time being!]

New style wedding limousine - see page 3

A lovely afternoon at Walton Fete. See page 6

Who's Celebrating What? See page i