Try Not To Put Your Foot In It!

So there I was, sitting in the staffroom on Friday, eating my lunch, when someone dashed in, and said “A workman’s foot has just come through the ceiling!”

It was the classroom where I was due to be teaching in the afternoon, so I went with colleagues to inspect the damage.

It looked something like this – there was a patch of plasterboard, some insulation and much dust on the carpet, and the data projector had got knocked sideways in the incident. The adults in the room had been very surprised by the whole thing.

Workman had been [noisily] banging about in the roof space all morning – but, by the grace of God, this accident happened in the lunch hour and the children were all outside – the debris was scattered all over the carpet space where they are often seated during lessons. We hastily replanned the afternoon’s activities, and doubled up with another class- and by the end of the day were able to return to the room for our singing time. We sang one of the class favourites - “Wind the Bobbin Up” – with the chorus

Point to the ceiling, point to the floor,

Point to the window, point to the door

But we modified it for the occasion

Point to the ceiling, up in the air

We can see a hole up there!

I think that next week, in story time, I may tell them the story from Mark 2, about the four men who brought their paralysed friend to Jesus, and let him down through a hole in the roof.

I have been thinking about that story a lot since the incident happened.

It has challenged me to ask myself some questions

What am I doing to introduce my friends to Jesus?

And do I often remain silent, when I could speak about my faith, for fear of ‘putting my foot in it’?

Maybe if my lifestyle was more gracious and Christ-like, then people wouldn’t get such a shock when the G-word suddenly comes into the conversations.

[happy to say that the workman was fortunately uninjured]