| Wired up |
One morning during the Summer I was driving to work and pulled up at a T junction, when, Bang!
The car behind me didn’t stop and had hit the rear bumper on my side of the car.
I had been in a queue, behind a van. The van driver had set off, but with another vehicle approaching I had had to stop again. The young driver behind me didn’t stop, so there was a collision. Fortunately, it was only a gentle bump as neither of us were going at any speed.
After exchanging details and taking photos etc. I set off on my way again. It was several weeks later before I had managed to get the car booked into a garage for a repair. I was then almost 2 weeks waiting for its return, and was pleased to have it back. However, by now it was getting shorter days and travelling home sometimes I was having to put the lights on. It was on one such evening when my husband spotted the fog light was on. Strange, I thought, I hadn’t purposely switched it on. As he investigated further, he concluded that whoever had done the repair at the garage had not put things back right. The rear panel on the bumper would have had to be taken off, which meant some of the wiring had to be disconnected, so that a spray job could be done. When the respray was completed, and the bumper refitted, the wiring for the back lights, fog light and number plate light, had not been attached correctly. The result was that when I had my head lights on, the fog light came on too. Another trip back to the garage and the problem was sorted. The car was wired up correctly once more, and so all was well.
This made me think, how often do we get our wires crossed? It was only the next day after I had the problem with the car, when someone from one of my Chapels said, “We must have got our wires crossed”, as we were meeting together, but found ourselves in different places!
I wonder if it’s because we do not hear properly, or perhaps we don’t listen. Maybe it’s because we don’t understand what is happening, or dare I say we chose not to.
Getting our wires crossed is the story of the Bible and the story of God’s people down through the centuries. Since the beginning of time, humanity has had its wires crossed, that is why Christ came to solve the problem, and to get us rewired for good and back to God. In the very beginning humankind was given rules. God said, to the first man and woman, eat any fruit from any tree in the garden of Eden, except the tree in the middle. But we know what happened. They ate and realised what they had done and were ashamed. Adam and Eve had misunderstood God. What he was telling them was for their own good, but they were deceived and disobeyed. So, the mess began. Everything out of sync, out of line, off course, all crossed wired and out of tune. Then God sends Jesus!
However, when we look at the life of Jesus, the religious leaders of his day, thought he had got it completely wrong. They had been hoping for a Saviour, looking for the Messiah, someone who was going to come and save them, and free them, from the Romans. So, who was this man, born in a stable in Bethlehem, who healed the sick on the Sabbath day, or had time for the beggars and prostitutes and those suffering with leprosy? Who was this man who rode into Jerusalem on a humble donkey, instead of a mighty powerful horse?
Everything Jesus did and said, seemed contrary to what they had thought and expected. Even the disciples and followers of Jesus asked, on more than one occasion, could this really be the Son of God?
Even today, for some people, the whole of the Gospel message, or Good News of Jesus, seems as though God has his wires crossed. It all seems very much ‘upside down’ and wrong way round. But then God is in the business of transforming lives and that’s what Jesus came to do.
Remember St Paul in the New Testament. Having been one of the worst persecutors of Christianity, and enemy of believers in Christ, when Paul met Jesus himself he became a completely changed man. God turns his life upside down, ‘rewires him’ so to speak, and Paul is then so in tune with God that he goes on to become one of the greatest evangelists of the Gospel message.
When we look at the world today, and the state it is in, we can see it’s all cross wired, and a total mess. Our lives might feel like that too. Only when we allow Jesus to get us sorted, and get our wires reconnected back to God; only when we are in tune with His will and ways, can there be any chance of peace amongst us.
God bless you, as you allow Jesus to rewire you back into a closer relationship with God Himself.
Eileen
30.10.23