TODAY, I HEARD SOUNDS OF YESTERDAY

Two memories from my childhood were triggered during the past 24 hours.

Sitting at my office desk, I can witness the building of a humungous house, which resembles a medium sized hotel. Yesterday the workers were on the roof nailing the flooring into place. They were approximately 300 metres from where I was observing. I watched as a worker picked up a four by eight feet sheet of plywood, and dropped it on the roof. A split second later I heard the sound as the plywood hit the wooden beams. It took that long for the sound to travel to my ears.

Years ago a teacher explained the principle to our school class. He told us to watch for examples. I remember watching adults practicing target shooting from about 400 metres away from where I was standing. I saw the smoke and then a split second later hear the bang.

By having this memory recalled yesterday, it reminded me that we need to hear the Gospel news repeated to be remembered and applied to our lives.

The second is in the reading today (Matthew 16:5-12), where Jesus speaks about ‘yeast’ as a powerful transforming agent. As a child I watched adults painfully mix and bake bread. Occasionally, they forgot the yeast and the batch was useless. Today, our bread maker does it all automatically. Yet, people have to add the ingredients, especially the yeast. Only when added, will yeast have its desired effect. The same is true of the Gospel: it must be added to our lives and the life of society if it is to transform the masses and the individual into God’s global village.

PASSPORT TO EASTER may be your way of adding yeast to the mix. Try it today.