Next week, babe

Before I start this week's blog, for the benefit of those who read my last blog and want to know what happened: the great news is that the key has been found (great rejoicing!)

Sue is currently away visiting her mum (who is in hospital), so I am having to fend for myself.  Although I have become a dab hand at beans on toast over the years (and even egg on toast on occasions!), I thought that today I would be a bit more adventurous and splash out on a Tesco prawn salad!!  However, I arrived home to discover that we were running low on salad potatoes.  So down to the local shop I trotted.

The person in front of me in the queue at the till had bought a couple of lottery type tickets, and had asked the cashier to check if they were winning tickets.  Not altogether surprisingly, the cashier returned with bad news; however, she did try to cheer up the disappointed customer with the words, "next week, babe!"  Not sure her words were altogether appropriate, as the customer was probably of pensionable age, but no doubt she spoke with affection and good humour.

One of the sad realities of the National Lottery is the evidence that many people who buy tickets regularly are in a low income bracket; in other words, poorer people who buy lottery tickets spend a greater proportion of their income on doing so.  I've never bought a lottery ticket myself, but I can understand the attraction in doing so (I would love to win multi-millions, because I can imagine what a tremendous amount of good could be done with the money).  

Even though the odds are stacked against someone buying a lottery ticket (apparently the chances of winning the jackpot are 1 in 14million), everyone who buys a ticket hopes against hope that their 'luck' will be in. The cashier in the shop was simply putting that thought into words with her expression, "next week, babe!"  The hope is that next week will be the jackpot week.  Of course, even if you have entered the National Lottery every week since is started in 1994, the chances of winning the jackpot this week are still 1 in 14million.  No wonder that the symbol of the National Lottery is crossed fingers!

Some people would say that life is rather like a lottery, that's it all a matter of luck or chance, and that life can offer no certainties ('Que Sera, Sera - Whatever Will Be, Will Be').  The big problem with that view is that it gives little reason for hope, and no assurance for the future.  

One of my favourite hymns is "Blessed Assurance", written by blind poet Fanny Crosby.  It speaks of the assurance we can have in Jesus Christ.  If our faith is in him, and our life committed into his hands, we don't have to trust to luck or cross our fingers.  Jesus doesn't promise that life will always be easy or smooth, but he does promise that whatever happens he will be with us, and that nothing will ever be able to separate us from his love.  The person whose trust is in Jesus is already rich beyond measure!

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