Ten Tent Pegs 8 & A Central Pole: Care & Kindness

There I was, having been trying to cross a busy junction, lying on the pavement in pain. And yet . . .

I'd travelled on the bus to meet daughter A at the theatre, to see daughter S taking part in the Big Broadway Show performed by Unleashed Theatre Company. Getting off at the bus stop, I had to wait a considerable time for the traffic to diminish, before being able to attempt to cross a multi-road junction. Eventually, seeing an empty road ahead, I stepped out, only to discover an unseen car speeding down. Stepping back, I caught my heel on the kerb, fell down and hit my head.

In no time, four or five men kindly came to my aid, waiting, patiently, until I said I was ready, then lifting me up. Explaining where I needed to be, one kind gentleman held my hand and walked me slowly to the theatre. Once there, he brought a chair across the foyer for me to sit on while awaiting daughter A's arrival. The theatre staff were also caring, bringing me a bottle of water, and taking us to a back seat in the theatre, so I didn't have to navigate the steps. Having seen the first half of the show, however, I needed to leave in the interval.

Learning that my daughter had walked down to the theatre, the staff said, 'We'll order a taxi to pick you up outside the door.'

Once home, my kind and caring daughter applied an ice pack to my head, and waited an hour or more with me until hub returned from footie.

Amazingly, I had no blood spills, and nothing broken.

'The Lord must have had His arms around me when I fell,' I said.

'No. It's the flab in your bottom that broke the fall,' said daughter A with her usual humour.

Yes, I had a lump in my head for a day or so. And yes, I've had a certain amount of pain in my back. Nevertheless, despite having had a crumbling spine for some years now, it is no worse than usual. Which makes me believe, adamantly, that it had to be the care and kindness of Christ that saved me: the Lord Jesus whose humiliating and painful death that we are remembering today, on Good Friday, was to save us, also, from our sins.

As David Frost has written in today's Daily Telegraph Britain is quietly awakening to full fat supernatural Christianity. I do hope that you, my readers, are among those doing so. Jesus Christ is the epitome of care and kindness, the central pole who is there for us all.