Advent Five

Pools of Bethesda by Jamie Boley - Saatchi Art.

 

Now the action moves to England.  An elderly and largely forgotten couple live solitary empty lives with the occasional contact from carers.  That is, until the day they meet someone who turns their lives around, and in doing so, creates a rumpus.

Swear By The Pools

Do you know Chester?  Well, me and my misses have always lived in a flat by Sheepgate.  Quite central, but it's up a flight of stairs and since we both became disabled, we haven't been out for years.  The council sends round nice ladies to keep an eye on us.  Otherwise we are hoping for a win on the pools.  For the last 38 years, once a week, me and the misses gather round the radio, and now it's the telly.  Our hope rises.  This the best part of the week.  For that moment we have real hope.  We can see ourselves moving out of this place, getting an adapted bungalow, having a bit of luxury, not much really.  Surely the odds will be with us after 38 years?  More recently, since 1994, we moved over to the lottery.  We can afford one pound a week between us.  So that's £2128 we've spent so far.  Looking at it that way, we could have had quite a nice little holiday by the sea I guess, but I always think you have to pay a lot to get a lot.  It will be our turn soon.

That is until last week.  This new girl came round, foreign looking.  We were in the depths of despair. Same old thing.  No win, no dream.  We're used to it. 

“Well,” she says "what do you really want?" 

“I want my young body back again, I want to be 21,” I say. She looks me in the eye.

"Look to the one who created you, and live,” she says as she crosses over to the door and opens it wide.  The sun streams in; there is a view from our balcony over the city wall and to the river.  I find myself getting out of my chair and walking out of that door.  I'm flooded with light.  Next to me comes the misses.  And the nice girl has gone.

Well you can imagine the uproar.  Next thing I know I've got a call from her boss.  She wants to know every move she made; I must relate the exact words.  There is anger in her voice.

"Irresponsible, unsafe, health and safety".  I say I know nothing about it.

"Don't blame me!"

Then yesterday, I was walking down Sheepgate, and I bumped into her.  It was a thrill, quite uplifting.  We chat for a moment.

"It's lovely to see you walking,” she said.  “Remember where it came from.  Follow your Creator, and you will always be safe."

Disabled, forgotten, living a pointless life.  Then Jesus comes

 along.  All the rules are broken and life is turned

 upside down.

We get used to the predictability of routines.  Like feet that walk down the same path compact the soil, and a path becomes worn and permanent.  We assume ‘this is the way’.  What if there is a different way and we just can’t see it?  Sometimes it takes outsiders, coming with different eyes; with ‘irreverent’ eyes, seeing through assumptions to new possibilities and outcomes.  There is a time for exceptional change.  This is when the present order of things it turned on its head. It is not a surprise that it’s so upsetting.  Am I aware of the possibilities ahead of me?  Am I ready to have my life turned upside down?  Even after 38 years….even when I am so old?

Here is a story of forgotten people, living with a glimmer of hope, year after a year the same thing keeping them alive.  Then something quite out of the blue happens.  And everything is different.  Changes like this can be traumatic.  It might be bereavement, falling in love, healing of the body or mind.  New opportunities from nothingness.  Just as with negative change, positive change can create turmoil.  How much is this my life?  Life with regrets, day after day the same, dreams passing me by.  Is it time to see hope differently; to embrace life today?  Forget the past, chose to live.  Do I have this courage?

PRAYER – Let’s look to our Creator to make something new happen…every day.