twins?

"Your twin moved it."

I was helping at the end of the AGM which Handicabs were holding here today. The piano and tables and chairs were all needing shifted around. Returned to the store, and then set up for the evening meeting here.

The folk who were running the meeting had hired in a sound system crew. So all of that was needing dismantled as well. And in among it all the piano stool went missing. I couldn't find it at all.

Which was when the sound system guy came out with those words.

"Your twin moved it."

Pardon me? I was a wee bit puzzled. Let me explain by giving you some useful things you might like to know about me.

1. I am not a twin. I have an older and a younger sister, and a younger brother too. But not a twin. (Unless my parents withheld some important information from us all)

2. My older sister has twins, but I don't. I have three sons, but there's a healthy gap between them all which precludes any chance of their being twins (far less triplets).

3. The person presumably mistaken for my twin would not appreciate being referred to as such. He is about 40 years younger than I am, has no grey hair, and does not look remotely like me. The only points of resemblance between us are (a) our height, (b) our clothing [we were both wearing zip-up tops], and (c) our gender.

4. The young lad who'd been helping me earlier on to set the place up, he and I are both believers. As followers of Jesus we belong to the family of God, and our 'birth' into that family has its origin in the same momentous day (the day when Jesus was crucified for our sins). That, in a way, might make us sort of twins (we were 'born again' on the same day): but I can't believe the sound system guy was indulging in such theological niceties. He didn't exactly look the type.

5. The lady who'd also been helping out at the start of the day as we sought to set the place up - she, also, would not, I think, appreciate being thought of as my twin. It didn't for a very long time even cross my mind that he might've been referring to her. She is tall for a lady, certainly. And yes, she was wearing a zip-up top as well. But that is pure coincidence. And I can't really think there are other ways in which we look alike at all. (She's older than me as well, but please don't quote me on that)

Nonetheless, I found it rather striking that the man should have spoken like that.

As if he had that sense that we belonged to one another. That there was that sort of 'closeness' in us all.

We work very much as a team. The young lad here who was helping out - this was his first day on the job (it's the local school's half term). And it didn't turn out as he'd been led to believe it would.

Things rarely do with us here! We long since learned to adapt.

And that's what this morning involved. A large-scale re-arrangement of the furniture to get things right for this group who were using our halls.

All of us work as a team. We help each other out. And, as I say, we long since recognised the need to be adaptable.

Life very rarely works out quite as we anticipate.

But we work as part of a team. Like oxen yoked together. 'Twinned' with each other. And together all 'twinned' with the Lord.

He takes the strain. He sets the course. He farms the land.

And we're glad to be a part of that today. What he, the Lord, is doing in and to our land.

Which seems to be involving some re-arranging of the 'furniture'.

We found the piano stool, by the way.

A helpful little token of the fact that the Lord knows what he's doing.

And that nothing of any value will be lost in all the furniture re-arrangements going on.