And as the world below goes through their forty days of Lent, in my imagination, two heavenly angels, one senior and the other many years junior are sent on a tour of earth.
“Why look so despondent little angel?” asked the senior angel, looking at the face of the young celestial being.
“Look at that man,” said the little angel.
“Yes, he’s given up his alcohol for Lent,” said her senior, “He does that every year!”
“But see where he looks,” said the little angel, “His eyes are fixed on a bottle of whisky, which I know he’s planning to open on Easter, and get drunk on!”
The senior angel looked at the little angel and sighed, “It makes you sad, doesn’t it?”
“Oh yes it does,” said the little angel, “Instead of concentrating during this non-drinking time of his, on what God did on the cross for him, he is thinking how great a sacrifice he himself is making keeping away from the bottle for forty days! The rascal actually thinks that by giving up his drinks for a month, God’s work has been paid back in full! Doesn’t he realise that no amount of abstinence from drinks or food or cigarettes, that no amount of fasting can compensate for what God did for him?” asked the little angel.
The senior angel looked at the junior angel, sighed and asked, “What would you have him do instead?”
“I would certainly want him to rejoice on Easter,” said the little angel, “and a drink or two may not hurt, but now I would want him to spend his time meditating on the greatest sacrifice of all time, picturing in his mind each scene of that terrible, humiliating act of a Man on a cross, with whose death, gives him a guaranteed entry into heaven!”
The man staring at his unopened bottle during Lent, heard the whirring of wings near him, and wondered at the sound.
Suddenly it seemed his eyes were opened and he looked with angelic vision, at what the real meaning of Lent was, “Lord,” he cried, “You died that I might spend eternity with you!”
“Did you open his eyes, little angel?” asked the senior angel, smiling, as they saw the man walking to his bottle and flushing the contents down a drain. The little angel nodded as the senior one smiled and heard the man below.
“My Lord and my God,” said the man, his hands clasped in prayer, “may I spend these forty days in thanksgiving and gratitude, and in preparation for an Easter, where a spirit more powerful than any from any bottle, will reside in me, through You the resurrected Christ!”
The angels smiled as the last of the bottle’s contents flowed down the sink..!
Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and author. He blogs at www.bobsbanter.com and can be reached at bobsbanter@gmail.com
