flashing lights

There was a fire engine standing in the car park here today.

It gave me a fright when I saw it from a distance as I came back to the buildings here.

Lights flashing. Men in their fire-fighting kit moving around the appliance. I wondered if the buildings here had all gone up in smoke.

But since there wasn't any smoke to be seen and the buildings looked intact, that moment of anxiety soon passed.

In fact, I'm still not sure just why the thing was there.

I mean, it looked the part. It wasn't as if it was carefully parked. It certainly looked as though the thing had arrived in a hurry and was parked there with a fire in mind, rather than sticking to some neat white parking lines (not that we really have any of them).

And the flashing lights, the men in their gear - the whole thing looked so authentic.

But they weren't really fighting a fire at all. They weren't really 'saving' anyone from anything at all.

It was all just show. Or so it seemed.

(It crossed my mind that one of the guys was maybe running a wee bit late for a doctor's appointment and that's why the light had been on - the doctors have their surgery across the road from us).

It left me a bit bemused. A bit like I guess the whole idea of 'church' leaves many folk bemused. Those figurative flashing lights, suggestive of the urgency there is: those guys dressed up in their rescuing gear.

But who are they actually saving? And what are they saving them from?