Moses' mother

The folk next door have just had their lives turned upside down. A baby. Their first. The revolution has begun!

Malcolm and I were chatting today. I was outside, working away at the laurel hedge. Cutting it back: reducing its height by a foot or so. I've begun to feel it's like a wall; a dark, imposing wall which makes it seem quite dark.

Anyway, I was out there at the hedge and Malcolm came over to chat. He was about to go out in the car, since their baby was bawling away like he wasn't all that happy. I mean I could hear him from where I was, so he must have been making a noise. I think Malcolm was glad to get out of the house!

I get on well with Malcolm, even though it's not in truth that often that we get to chat.

He works from home, so I asked him how the whole thing there was working what with baby being around. That got us onto the subject of work, of course, and so he started quizzing me about my work. The hours I keep. The sort of situations I can fihd myself involved in day by day.

'I suppose it's not a job,' he said at last. 'It must be more a way of life.' Which I guess is true. At least, I never really think of it as work. I'm doing the thing for which I feel I'm made. And that never feels like work.

Well, not like a job, at any rate. I mean, I think I'd happily do the things I do without being paid for it at all. If I got the sack, for instance, I think I'd still keep doing the very things I'm doing here and now.

It's a bit like being the mother of Moses, someone once observed. Some minister, I think. You have to know a bit of the Bible, obviously, to make that sort of clever observation.

Doing the thing that's closest to your heart - and getting paid for doing it!

(It's a slightly complicated story, the mother of Moses one. But it's well worth reading and thinking about, because it shows how good God is. I think he often works things out in life like that. He's just amazingly good. And all because he loves us. I can't ever get over that!)

Well that was how the chat with neighbour Malcolm reached its end. And I thought again what a wonderfully privileged guy I am. What a wonderful life I lead.

Sometimes I think I need a day off just to get things into that perspective once again!