Charlie and his family lived down the hill from home. I never saw much of them and have only vague recollections of what Charlie looked like though the rest of the family's appearance has completely escaped me, including that of their mother. Charlie had a sort of square face and black hair and I suppose in any identity parade of nationalities, would have been immediately recognisable as the Irishman. He and his family lived in a cottage about one hundred and fifty yards further along the lane and which was set back perpendicular to the road, about twenty yards from the tarmac. There was nothing grand about it at all, being a typical three room cottage which may have had a thatched roof but in later years was covered in corrugated tin sheets. The children varied in age on both sides of my own and generally played around their own house and the only time I really saw them was when they all were piled into their dad's green van as he drove up past our house, taking them to school, town or chapel. However, while I knew that they had a different religion to us, I was too young to appreciate that they may have lived on the edge of poverty during their time in the lane. Eventually, Charlie pulled up the anchor and moved the whole family a few miles closer to town and I never saw any of them again. Sean made more regular trips up an d down our lane and while I knew him to see, I don't think I ever spoke to him nor him to me. He was much older than I, though it was difficult to put him in any particular age bracket and while I probably labelled him as somewhere about late forties, in truth during the time I knew him, he can't have been any more than his mid twenties. He lived with his mother and his other brother, Kevin, in a little cottage about a mile away, that could be reached by the main road and across a neighbour's farmyard or by a shortcut through low lying fields and along a dirt track that made the journey considerably less than a mile and closer to the distance a crow would have flown between our two houses. Every day, he would pass our abode on his way to the river, walking beside his donkey that pulled a small orange and blue cart with large wheels and some time later would return, leading his followers home. I never took much notice of why he went there and indeed never thought to ask but eventually it dawned on me that the river was the source of water for his home and after he had filled the barrels in the cart, a few fallen branches from the trees along its banks, would provide the heating that they needed to get them through a stiff winter. But I was too young to appreciate that they may have lived on the edge of poverty during his journeys in the lane. Eventually, Sean's mum died and he and Kevin moved to a house in the city, where, I presume, they still live.
Kevin was blessed with more intelligence than his brother but his simple home surroundings had always preserved an innocence and humility than time would never change. He went to grammar school, then to college and because his mum and parents were always close neighbours, he frequently visited home and when away during his studies, always sent cards at Christmas and wrote letters to the family. After his mother died, he took it upon himself to look after Sean and they moved to the city nearby. However for several years now, every Christmas, we have received a little diary from Kevin, full of his own personal writings in the form of poetry, that inspires and delights us and most of all reminds me of former times.
But the greatest lesson I have learned from Kevin is that God's love and salvation is for everybody and that no single group of believers has a monopoly on the truth. Why else would Paul write to the believers in Rome, 'Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too.' And for what other reason would God announce to Abraham, 'All nations will be blessed through you.' Sometimes we are too quick to dismiss those whose faith in God seems at odds with our own ideas of what faith should be, but when Kevin writes these words, I know his faith in his Creator is secure.
'I have not chosen Him, but He has chosen me, so it has been no accident, in that Jesus has set me free, a kingdom not of this world, my mansion's way up above, and 'tis all because of Calvary, my Lord's redeeming love.'
Paul said, 'For this is what the Lord has commanded us: " 'I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.' Whose pathway is being brightened by your faith?
