Sometimes it is all so simple.

*He walked up to the table and sat down.
It was lunchtime, at the *YMCA and often non-residents would eat with us.
Introductions are always fun.
He explained that he had just completed his degree.
I asked, “What degree?”
He said, “Psychology”
“Oh” said I.
Always alert for an opportunity to share the Good News, I asked him if he minded if I asked him a question, seeing as he was a student of the human condition.
He smiled very sweetly and nodded in approval.
“So what is it that separates people?”
There was a small interval and he replied, “I don’t know what it is that separates people.”
I thought to myself, that surely someone who had studied Psychology should have an answer to such and elementary question. Perhaps it was elementary to me, having come to faith in Jesus three years ago.

I spoke softly and quickly and said, ‘Sin’

Oddly the conversation did not continue and we all ate our meals quietly, and then went our respective ways.

Night came and sleep followed.

‘Bang! Bang! Bang!’ the sound of heavy knocking on my door.
I got up and turned the key in the lock.
A beaming face greeted me. When he opened his mouth to speak, the smile got larger and larger and larger as he explained how he had gone to his overnight room, and sat there thinking about this word, ‘Sin’. Eventually he found a Bible and started reading it. By dawn, he had committed his life to Jesus Christ.
He showed me the notebook held in his hand: the sort with the spring wire binding, and it was filled with the journey that he had taken in such a short space of time.

I saw him a few times after that, and he was engaged in some programme helping children with learning difficulties.

Praise God! Sometimes it is all so simple.

* Y.M.C.A. in Observatory, Western Province, South Africa. (1979)
** His name was Colin Blake.