X is for X-RAY

I never actually saw the X Ray but the doctor assured me that the finger was broken, well chipped actually, somewhere around the knuckle. I knew something was wrong for you just don't get that sort of excruciating pain unless the damage is severe. Anyway, they plastered me from fingertip to elbow, a bit excessive I thought, though now they probably wouldn't do much more than put a splint around it and throw me a few painkillers. The cast stayed on for weeks and when it came off, my finger that had been bent across the palm of my hand all that time, took ages to work properly again and you know I can still feel a weakness in it thirty years later. So much for medical knowledge when I was a kid but I guess progress always highlights the mistakes of the past! Still, if it hadn't been for the good old X Ray machine and William Rontgen they might never have found out the cause of my pain though it is always a little disconcerting that while X Rays are so essential to diagnosis, everyone always leaves the room only the patient when the machine is switched on! Mind you, I have looked at many an X Ray slide since and more often than not I haven't the first clue what I'm looking at or meant to see. I guess it takes a lot of practice and a highly trained eye to interpret those sheets properly and I'm sure occasionally they get it wrong.

I remember on one occasion, when I was just out of my teens, going in to see my doctor for a routine examination after a bout of flu only for him to tell me, in confidence, that my mum's recent chest X Ray showed a serious shadow over one lung that looked extremely sinister. I really didn't hear his attempt at comforting words that followed, including 'Just keep it to yourself until we get a second opinion,' for by that stage I was already thinking all sorts of scenarios and inwardly dissolving into a weakened state. Admittedly, I did as he suggested but strangely, he never contacted me again and some weeks later when I decided to enquire from mum as to the results of her X Ray, she informed me that it was completely clear. To this day, I've no idea whether someone in the clinic had made a huge error that had been rectified on second examination or God had answered the prayers that I had offered up and put the whole thing right.

Most people have been through an X Ray or have been with someone who has. It's a fairly straight forward principle at the end of the day in that X Rays tend to pass more easily through soft tissues and are generally blocked or hindered by more dense tissues such as bone. So when the radiographer looks at his 'picture' he sees black areas where the X Rays have penetrated through organs and muscles and light areas where the Rays have been stopped. In this way he or she can quickly have an image of anything that appears out of the ordinary. Sometimes they may even use other chemicals such as Barium which act in the same way as dense tissues and so can create 'pictures' inside organs and blood vessels. Even if you haven't made it under an X Ray machine you may have had your hand luggage checked in much the same way at an airport so the X Ray machine has many uses beyond the medical. Still it is possible that even though it can 'see' right inside us, it might miss something very important.

That's something which God just doesn't do. The Psalmist writes in chapter 139, 'You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar' and he goes on to write 'Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.' We also read in Psalm 44 that 'he knows the secrets of the heart.' God doesn't need an X Ray machine to know what we are like inside both in our physical, mental and spiritual state and I guess most of us know what he is likely to find when he looks at us too. But how strange that although we heed the X Ray machine and its findings, when God looks into our innermost beings, too often we are quite prepared to decline His offer of help. It doesn't take an X Ray to see the sin that affects our lives but it will always leave a shadow until we find the cure at the cross.

Z is fro ZION

We had a choice of about six or seven different LPs to spin on a Sunday afternoon. There was Tennessee Ernie Ford who had a couple of gospel albums that I best remember for the spectrum coloured circle around the rim of the central inset but also because of his rendition of 'will the circle be unbroken.' For some reason, in those formative years, I had always thought that his Christian name was Ernessie. Anyway it seemed to roll well off the tongue. Then, like most folks, we had the two Jim Reeves gospel records, with such classics as 'supper time', 'teach me how to pray' and 'this world is not my home'. Mum always said that when she listened to him sing that song, she felt he suspected that his life might be short and though I wasn't so sure I didn't disagree. After all, she owned the records! Being a big fan of Billy Graham, mum was always going to have one or two George Beverley Shea records in the collection, but I never really warmed to his deep voice at the time, though lately, as he reaches ninety years of age, I've come to appreciate not only his talent but his faithfulness. I watched him the other night on some sort of advertisement for Gaither DVDs and I have to say that he is held in such high esteem by everyone, though some of the audience had so much make up and had spent so long in the hairdressers that they made the puppets from Thunderbirds look good. And the women were just as bad.

Well that was almost the complete collection, apart from a really rare album called 'dust on the bible' by Kitty Wells, that a good friend allowed me to borrow. Recently, I discovered that it is available on CD so I feel a purchase coming on. It is really just a good old fashioned country and bluegrass album and though I don't really subscribed to being a big fa n of such music, the record itself just brings back so many memories of a time since gone and has some beautiful and thought provoking tracks including 'I dreamed I searched heaven for you,' (hardly a theologically sound lyric but at the same time maybe something which makes us think about our own destiny), 'You've got to walk that lonesome valley' and of course the title track which probably shakes most of us up more than any other.

Well after those gems, the only other Sunday afternoon listening was from two LPs by Burl Ives, an actor cum singer cum instrumentalist cum film star who passed away not many years ago. Most people remember him for singing 'the ugly bug ball' from the film 'Summer Magic' but in my mind he always remains as the man who sang 'We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion' from his vinyl LP 'Sunshine in My Soul.' But there were so many classics on that piece of black vinyl, like 'Standing on the Promises', 'Beulah Land' , 'Bring them in' and 'Where HE leads me I will follow.' You know sometimes I think today we have become so narrow minded in our desire to be contemporary in worship that we miss the beauty of such old songs. But the one album of his that I always remember is the disc that he made with the Korean Orphan Choir way back in 1963. It wasn't many years after the Korean War and it was so beautiful to hear such classics as 'The Way of the cross leads home', 'I love to tell the story' and 'Revive Us Again.' And of course that's what I intend to do exactly, to revive some of these old songs so that not only do they not die but the truths within them remain alive for generations to come. As John says in his gospel, 'God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.' Happy Listening.

Z is for ZOO

You don't really get a true feeling of wild animals from the other side of a cage. Most of them, apart from a few mad monkeys and the occasional energetic penguin, lead fairly sedentary lives, though what thoughts are filling their minds might involve some relation between me outside the bars and a rather juicy lunch. I suppose it's enough to see the danger but it's hardly an ideal way to really see the true character of any animal. It's a bit like the way we know our colleagues and friends at work or school where they might just be a different person to the one their family sees at home.

Anyway, this morning I got a glimpse into the laws of the jungle and how they differ from the laws of the zoo. It was one of those nature programmes centred around a water hole and involved three animals, a lioness, a crocodile and a young hippo. By the time I had joined the programme however, the latter's involvement was purely passive, having lost a brave fight for life with the big cat and it now lay motionless on its back, at the shore of the water hole, with most of the red flesh around its rib cage visible. The lioness for her part, was exhausted after the battle with the young water horse but there was no time to be complacent. For one thing, a grieving mother had waded towards the water edge hinting at some form of revenge or maybe wishful that all hope was not lost but within a few minutes, when reality hit home, she seemed to lose all will to fight and wandered back into deep water, never to return . However another menacing figure had emerged from the water and, observing dinner already waiting, slowly crawled, almost unnoticed towards the still warm meat feast. Except that he had been noticed and the lioness, despite her clear state of exhaustion, was not about to give up a hard earned dinner to a freeloading crocodile. And so the standoff began. The cat, safe in the knowledge that she could easily bite into the side of the reptile to cause lasting damage, but aware that the jaws of her enemy could crush her with one closure, prowled her territory, occasionally sparring with a few jabs of her front paw and a show of teeth. But it was obvious that in her weakened state, she would be no match for her opponent, should the crocodile choose to attack. And that's exactly when the law of the jungle took over, though I prefer to call it God's perfect creation. For there, in the searing heat of an afternoon, the cold-blooded crocodile could no longer control its rising body temperature and was forced to retire to the coolness of the nearby water, leaving the tiring cat to drag her dinner to a more peaceful corner and enjoy.

For me it was more than a lesson in jungle laws and survival but a glimpse into the intricacies of a God who not only designed all of creation but put everything in place so that it all just works, right down to our body temperatures.

So where will you catch a glimpse of God today. As I flew across the ocean, I saw Him in the carpet of clouds that bring rain, in the sun rising above the horizon, heralding a new day, in the intelligence he gave to man to build a jet engine, in the different languages and nationalities that surrounded me. But mostly I see Him in Jesus, who told His disciples, 'If you have seen me, you have seen the Father,' and also reminded them 'I and the Father are one.' You will see God today. Just make sure you recognise Him.

Z is for ZACCHAEUS

I've always been fascinated by the little tax collector. I understand how unpopular such characters can be even when they're only doing an honest day's work because if you get one of those brown envelopes from the Inland Revenue, you can be pretty sure it's going to cost you money, the minute you open it. Anyway Zacchaeus wasn't that honest, according to his reputation and I reckon folks were paying more tax than the government legally required of them, except that all the extras were lining his pockets. Yet it appears he wasn't without influence, being one of the most important Jews around in the whole Roman taxing system, which, of course, made him even more hated by his own people, because he worked for the enemy. But Jesus is in town and it's a great chance to see this guy whose fame is going before him around the local towns and villages. Still, you can't be too careful. After all, you're not exactly popular, so Zacchaeus just stays at the back of the huge crowds lining the streets and hopes to see enough of this visitor from a distance.

Now it's at this stage that I begin to know how he felt. When I was a nipper, my grandad used to take me to football games but once the terraces were full I could barely see over the heads of all the big people and it was a real drag not to be able to catch the action as it happened. And I've been at a few 'standup' concerts, where you spend the whole night straining your neck to just get a glimpse of the stage. So for the diminutive tax collector, the sort of character Danny deVito displays in films, it was never going to be enough. He needed a better view. Isn't it interesting that he ran ahead, knowing that Jesus was definitely going in his direction and then climbed a tree where not only he could see easily but could also be easily seen. I just cannot imagine the shock on his face when Jesus calls him by name and invites himself to his house. We've had a few guests staying with us over the years and I reckon the two things you kind of want to do before anyone arrives is to have the house tidy and also have some food prepared in advance. So Zacchaeus is taken by surprise but maybe not as much as the folks standing around who just can't believe that their new hero is going to the house of the greatest rogue about .

But this encounter turns out to be the day that changes the life of Zacchaeus for ever. For once he comes face to face with Jesus, he is immediately aware of all the wrong he has done and immediately confesses and promises to put all things right and a bit more besides. I love Jesus' response to Zacchaeus' change of heart, for He says,'salvation has come to this home today.' But it's also what He adds that really quietens the crowd for He announces,'I ,the Son of Man, have come to seek and save those like him who are lost.'

You know this story that I've known since childhood and sung in a chorus at sunday school has still something to teach me all these years later and it's not just that the salvation Jesus offers is for anyone. It's the fact that He knows me by name just as well as He knew Zacchaeus and He knows you too and when He comes looking for us, there is really no place to hide. Be assured, an encounter with God will always be life changing and more than a little taxing.

Z is for ZERO

Our Latin teacher had almost no hair on his head but made up for it with the growth around his chin and neck. He was quite a scholar in ancient languages, often being timetabled to teach Greek but unfortunately nobody had bothered to instruct him in the art of class control, especially when it was a room full of adolescent boys. As a result of his ineptitude as a disciplinarian, most of our classes were a free for all and while the noise level was very high, the learning level was well below average.

Sometimes, in an effort to regain some semblance of control, he would enter the room with all guns blazing, but by half way through the period, life would have returned to abnormality and, apart from the occasional raised rant from the front and the occasional attempt at grammar, vocabulary and translation, most of us left with little more knowledge of the Roman language than forty minutes earlier. But not everyone was laughing. For a start, the majority of us was keen to know enough Latin to pass the exam at the end of term. But an even more sinister threat lay directly below our classroom for there resided the senior master, also a well respected Classics teacher and after putting up with the noise from above for several periods, he could ignore it no longer and one day, just after class had begun, the door opened and in walked what would become our greatest nightmare for that whole year. Much to the embarrassment of 'beardy', there then took place a rapid interrogation of the class as to the cause and the culprits of the racket. In the now deathly silence nobody was terribly forthcoming with sufficient explanations, nor was anyone about to witness for the prosecution but we were all immensely sorry first years for the pain and suffering we had afflicted on those in the classroom below, particularly the senior master.

However repentance was never going to be enough. Not for the senior master. Punishment! That was all that would suffice and quench his thirst for blood. Detention! That was what he said. For the whole class. That very afternoon. One hour. No early bus. No mobile to explain why I was going to be late home. I guess we got off light. Other classes had been caned for similar behaviour. Anyway, like all convicted criminals, we did our time. And though the Latin didn't get much better, the term passed with one or two more such hiccups. When the exam results came out, two boys had scored zero in Latin and after a couple of years the bearded one left to seek new pastures, his reputation well beyond repair. But zero never really tells the whole story. Just like in sport when a team or player scores zero, it really gives no indication of the effort that may have been made, despite the scoreline.

This has taught me two things. First, God does not want to punish us for the wrong that we have done but He does expect repentance. Secondly, some people, while truly sorry for their sin, want to reach the goal of God's acceptance through their own efforts and many produce an impressive struggle but their sum reward will be zero because that is not God's chosen way. Jesus says, 'except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.' I guess there's nothing else to say.

Z is for ZOOM

I bought a new camera recently. It's not an expensive, all singing , all dancing sort, with interchangeable lenses and more settings than an aeroplane cockpit. In fact the only two criteria that it had to meet, when I was browsing in the shop, was, first it had to be compact and slim, to fit inside a shirt pocket and, secondly, it had to be cheap. The fact that it had a zoom lens, took eight megapixel pictures and could record short movies seemed less important, since most cameras appeared to have those capabilities anyhow.

For the last few years my camera has been my phone and while it served a purpose and was handy to carry, there's only so much quality you can get with two megapixels, though it did tick all the other boxes for convenience, size and cheapness. But this year had to be different. After all it was the old silver wedding anniversary and I wanted to have some good evidence of our holiday.

Anyway , it's a straight forward sort of device to operate, if you forget all the extras and just want to point and shoot to at least have a photographic record, never mind the quality, so I made sure I had a large enough memory card to store all the things we would see. And of course there are some great shots of various places. After all, it's just a matter of pressing one button to open the lens shutter, using the zoom control and then clicking another button to take the shot. So I would love to be telling you about the four pictures we have of three crosses on a hill that we came across at various locations during our drive, or the 'welcome to west Virginia', 'welcome to Kentucky', 'welcome to Indiana', 'welcome to Ohio' or 'welcome to Michigan' signs that we passed, but you'll have to take my word for it because there is not a scrap of photographic evidence for any of them. The common denominator in all those missed photo opportunities ? Well I'd rather not elaborate, but I was driving so I couldn't be responsible! I'm sure you get my drift. I think I'm going to make an album full of blank pages with captions telling the viewer what should be in the empty space.I guess it's all about being prepared, isn't it? There's really no point in having the equipment if we don't know how to use it. Or maybe, we just never take the time to get prepared.

I've had a Bible for longer than I can remember but if I don't get familiar with it, I'll never know the impact it can make on my life and the true path that God wants to lead me along. All week, everywhere I turn, that verse in Jeremiah 29 and 11 keeps appearing, where God says 'I know the plans I have for you.' So if I don't bother to read His guidebook, I may never get to find out exactly what those plans are and my album will just be pages and pages of what should have been and I'll have to take His word for it. Maybe we need to zoom in to get the bigger picture!

Z is for ZELDA

You know the way you get hooked on some things that you never really meant to become involved in. Maybe it's a soap on television, a movie, a good book, even a news story or a sporting game. I recall, just a few years back being glued to the television, watching the OJ Simpson trial and all that led up to it and staring open-mouthed as the verdict was announced. The same went for the trial of the young English nanny, Louise Woodward, some time later. It was riveting television and I guess real life has that effect on all of us, when it is beamed into our homes and we become the 'fly on the wall'. But a video game? Well that's just a bit different, don't you think? Especially when one has reached the age where his first experience of this new form of entertainment was two paddles trying to 'bat' a dot of light back and forth, in a game inappropriately called 'tennis'.

But I was definitely hooked on Zelda, though the use of the past tense suggests that I have left it all behind, which may not be essentially the whole truth. It just wasn't like other games eldest son had. The James Bond one, Mario, Formula One, they were all great fun but I just seemed to get motion sickness every time I played them. It was worse than sitting in the back of a bus and trying to read a magazine. Zelda was different. It was more of a strategy game, a life adventure almost, as you guided the young Link through a series of tasks, defeating some rather fierce enemies along the way and also seeing him reach adulthood and helping him to become equipped with a whole variety of weapons, potions and protection that allowed him to travel that little bit further through the kingdom of Hyrule. Of course, what really helped was a book son had that we appropriately called the 'cheat book' but was in effect a guide through each stage that helped you know where to go, how to collect bonuses and also how to defeat the enemies. In the end I never finished the game but it wasn't for lack of effort and if I can dig it out again, I'll maybe give it another rattle.

But there are two things I remember about the game. First,the little pink bottle of potion that automatically restored you to life when you were destroyed by an enemy. It always made me think of that wonderful verse in Psalm 23 which says, 'He leads me beside still waters, He restores my soul' or as the New Living translation puts it, 'He renews my strength.' How wonderful to know that God is ever present with us, just waiting to have us rest and be restored in His care.

But the reason I didn't finish the game was because I reached a stage where the young hero, Link, had to become a child again to complete the next level and I just couldn't adjust to that scenario, especially since I had lost the guide book. Yet doesn't Jesus tell His disciples in Matthew 18, 'unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.' it really is that simple. Childlike faith and our guide book, the Bible. Then there is no enemy we cannot defeat. Don't give up. Let Him restore you and go forward in His strength.