Letter from the Rectory

Judith ponders on how the human race views God; there's no hurry!

Dear Friends,

Our daughter was given a book of "wisdom stories" from around the world compiled by Margaret Silf:

The devil was running a training course for his apprentices. "There's no room for complacency", he warned. People on earth still believe in Jesus. Some of them see God in the beauty of creation. They are starting to realise how important it is to work for justice and peace. If things carry on like this, God's kingdom will come and we'll all be out of a job."

"So what are you going to do about it?" he demanded. "Any bright ideas?"

Very tentatively, the first apprentice raised his arm, "Sir, why don't we tell there is no God?" "No good at all," snapped the devil, "they seem to be born with a longing for something in their lives that is not satisfied. Often they don't realise it, but sooner or later most of them would say that God exists."

"What about telling them that there is no such thing as sin, so they've nothing to worry about?" suggested the second student. "A good try was the answer" but if they stop to think, they soon realise that nobody's perfect and they only have to watch the news on TV to know that you're deluding them.

After a long pause, a third student came up with this suggestion:

"It's no good us telling them that there is no God. It's no use telling them that there is no sin. How would it be if we told them that there is NO HURRY?" "Brilliant! You've got it! That's exactly what we'll do," came the reply.

And so it came about that the human race carried on believing in God and knowing about sin, but never doing much about it, because, after all, there was no hurry. (Source unknown)

With best wishes,

Judith Grundy