So that we could get our Christmas Tree into the lounge this year, I had to move an armchair into my study. Since it was there I started to use it and when the Christmas Tree went, the armchair stayed. But to make space for it I had to rearrange the whole room, including moving my desk from in front of the French windows so that the chair could be placed looking out onto the patio.
For the first time I found myself looking at a space that had been sadly neglected. Overgrown with weeds and covered in moss the multi-coloured paving slabs were lost to view. But having noticed it, that’s all set to change and when summer comes I’m looking forward to sitting out in a space that will have realised it’s potential.
Realising potential was one of the things that Jesus was brilliant at – not with patios obviously – but with people. Those who were neglected by others as having no value and who were left in the margins to decay, were precisely the ones that Jesus invited into his inner circle of friends. Lepers, prostitutes, tax-collectors and sinners – Jesus saw the potential in all of them to reflect God’s image and become the beautiful people they were created to be.
