variety

No two days are alike, that's for sure!

The Lord's great that way. Each day is a gift. And none of them quite the same.

I don't really bother with breakfast most of the time. Mainly because I'm not that hungry. I tend to eat on a need-to-feed basis rather than a 'this-is-the-time-of-day' sort of basis.

Today I was way up town, though, first of all. Half-past seven, and 'breakfast' with a couple from South Africa. In, I think, a Swedish cafe. "Peter's Yard".

I hadn't met them before, but he's across on a lecture tour about the Zulu Wars. Rob and Karen Caskie work at Fugitives' Drift Lodge and this was a chance to meet them both. Briefly over a coffee. A very pleasant way to start the day. And a lovely couple.

From there it was off to the school. It's a Wednesday after all.

Never mind the fact they hadn't told me there were photos being taken in the hall today! Even Wednesdays at the school can sometimes vary!

After that it was off to the garage to get some fuel. Not for the car, but for the mower that the 'beadle' uses here.

He used to go on his cycle to collect the fuel. Or 'gas' as he chooses to call it (since he's American): which confused me at first.

But now in the light of terrorist acts he's not allowed, by law, to take it on his bicycle. In a car's OK. But not on your bicycle, pal. Glasgow Airport take note...

Back here at the halls the water was off. In fact, the water had been off for quite some while. Yesterday afternoon, I think. The builders next door had drilled through a pipe. Or something like that.

How much we depend on water for all of our lives! We had to close the place to the public here today, as a result.

And in between all that I was nipping off back home to see a plumber there. A couple of dripping taps.

Water when it's not wanted. And no water when we needed it. Too much in the one place. Not enough in the other.

A picture of the world in which we live. Too much and too little. It doesn't seem fair.

Which was the theme of the lunchtime service I was leading today. Psalm 73. A psalm that's always pretty relevant. I think folk found it so today.

There were a couple of people I needed to see in the afternoon.

And then some final preparation for the meeting I was chairing out of town. Kirkliston. The first chance I'd had to meet all the leaders there. Now that their minister's gone.

It was great to meet with them all. Get a feel for the people and place again. And I think they felt themselves the time went well.

But another very different context from the one that I'm accustomed to. Variety again.

New responsibilities. New challenges. New people. New friends.

God's new thing in a rather different place.