God may just be a little bit lonely...

Whenever I am in London I am always struck by the incredible diversity of people that live that glorious city! Just a few minutes on the London underground, or walking down Oxford street, and you soon come to realise that the world is filled with so many different people!

This quote from the book of Psalms is one of my favourites (I'm not sure that one should have 'favourite' quotes from the Bible, or should one!? Somehow I have a sneaking suspission that one should either NOT proof text particular verses, or that the whole of the message of scripture should hang together as one glorious 'favourite'...)

The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it.
- Psalm 24:1

This verse, in conjunction with the quote below, made me think about this nonsensical issue - the fact that God may just get lonely at times!

I often say to myself that, in our religion, God must feel very much alone: for is there anyone besides God who believes in the salvation of the world? God seeks among us sons and daughters who resemble him enough, who love the world enough so that he could send them into the world to save it.

- Louis Evely, In the Christian Spirit


There's that old joke about the guy who goes to heaven. When he gets to the pearly gates he is met by St Peter. St Peter is having a slow day and so he decides to give him a little tour of heaven. They walk past huge stadiums of rejoicing people, Peter points out that those are the Baptists having a prayer rally. Next they walk past the largest Cathedral the man has ever seen, in it are a throng of people praising God in the most beautiful liturgy ever heard, St Peter points out that those are the Catholics... This goes on as they pass one community of rejoicing believers after another. Eventually however, they get to a very large building with a large perimiter around it, pasted on the outside are large signs emploring the paserby to remain silent. When the man asked St Peter why they had to keep quiet when passing that particular Church he replied, "Oh, those are the Methodists... They think they're the only ones up here!"

I thought that was quite funny, but also quite telling! Oh, and before any Methodists get upset, remember I am a Methodist, and I use my own denomination as the example in the joke because I wouldn't want to make fund of anyone but myself!