A is for ALMOST

"You're almost there!" I shouted, as Davy frantically alternated between forward and reverse on his jeep controls, but even as my encouraging words dissolved in the morning mizzle and despite his best efforts, subconsciously we both knew that it was a losing battle. When finally the wheels began to spin constantly, the engine grew louder and the hedges seemed to be growing higher, we knew we were sinking. And to think I had almost declined his invitation to visit his farm, he had almost taken his usual route and, when we had forsaken the firmness of the hastily constructed, and almost, but not quite, finished, stony lane, I had almost said, "Are you sure this is wise?" It was almost 10:30 in the morning and just over the distant hedge you could almost count the cattle in the neighbouring field. We rang Gary, who is almost never away from the farm but who almost didn't answer and when he had stopped laughing, he agreed to come and tow us out. Still the fresh air would be good for us though we were left to experience it from the confines of the driver and passenger seats as the now obvious large puddles and very recently excavated mud all around, left us prisoners in our own jeep.It was a large tractor, almost new and almost too close to us and I almost got the electric window closed in time, but not quite. We were almost drenched in a brown liquid that we had helped to create and I almost said a bad word but by this stage Gary was laughing uncontrollably so we just joined in. The thin rope that was chosen to lead us to firm ground didn't fill me with confidence but we were almost starting to move before it chose the most inopportune moment to snap, and in a place where it could no longer be joined. I almost gave up hope as we searched for an alternative and by the time Gary returned with an altogether more sturdy lifeline, we had almost used all the tissues in the box to clean the mud -sprinkled dashboard. I almost cheered, though as a guest it might have seemed inappropriate, as we sailed through the surrounding hidden waters and moored on the stony lane once again. The whole drama had taken almost two hours but it almost never happened.

Our lives are all filled with 'almosts', those 'nearly, but not quite' moments that sometimes we regret and sometimes, I assure you, we celebrate their happening. The almosts that avoid inconvenience, confrontations, failures or even tragedy and the almosts that don't.

The Bible is full of almosts. Jonah almost went to Nineveh, Joseph's brothers almost killed him, Abraham almost sacrificed his son, Zacchaeus almost didn't see Jesus, Peter almost didn't deny him. But by far the saddest and yet most remembered 'almost' is King Agrippa's reply to Paul's oration when he said, 'Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.' There is no historical record that this 'almost' ever became 'altogether'.

I almost moved to a different letter today, I was nearly ready, but not quite. I'm altogether more happy that I didn't. I'm almost finished. Almost persuaded? Not quite enough!