The Return!

I drove to the Kingdom Hall last night - for the first time in over two years, which is when we started Zooming. 

I had forgotten it would be dark when I drove back. And it is over two years since I drove anywhere after dark, so I spent some time searching for the light switch. I found the windscreen wipers, no problem, but as it wasn't raining that didn't help. For a moment I imagined I would be sleeping in my car until the first light of dawn.  But I remembered where they were and drove myself back in a blaze of headlights.

Being back in the Hall put me in mind of my first  visit to the Kingdom Hall in my Northern hometown, all those years ago. The Watchtower study that Sunday was about walking in Jesus' footsteps, and the speaker used an illustration that has stayed with me to this day.

If you were following someone through a very dangerous area - let us say Grimpen Mire (in the Hound of the Baskervilles) - a Mire that could swallow you whole if you stepped in the wrong bit and which, spoiler alert, conveniently swallowed up the villain - if you were following a guide through it, someone who knew the safe way, wouldn't you follow them very carefully, wouldn't you put your foot in the exact place where they put their foot?

You wouldn't think of taking a short cut!

So, as Peter himself said, we need to follow closely in Jesus' footsteps: "In fact, to this course you were called, because even Christ suffered for you, leaving a model for you to follow his steps closely." - 1 Peter 2:21

We are in a dangerous world system, one ruled by Satan the devil, but we will get through to the safety of the restored earthly paradise if we pay close attention to the teaching and example of Jesus Christ.

I am just on the point of finishing Curtis Urness book - very well written, excellently structured, but a very difficult subject.  If I do review it in my blog, it will be a very serious blogpost.