17 January

Today's the day when in 1985 BT announced the phasing out of the red telephone box. Originally designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and painted bright red to make them easy to spot, they have been in use since 1926. Like double-decker London buses they have been widely recognised as a symbol of Britishness. When the action in a film moves to Britain directors just love to slip in a scene with a red phone kiosk in the background.

Such is the charm of these phone boxes that when BT announced they were to be phased out many local councils sought to prevent their removal and now over 2,000 have been designated listed buildings. Others have been snapped up by collectors or incorporated into works of art. Several are now in use as shower cubicles in private homes.

Much as they were loved, red telephone boxes have largely had their day. If they once seemed a fixture in the cityscape, they have now become a rarity. The Bible reminds us that change is an inevitable part of life in this world. In fact as we change and things around us change God's word is the fixed point we have to guide us. Listen to these stirring words from Isaiah:

All people are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of our God stands for ever.

16 January

Today's the day when the supermodel Kate Moss was born in Croydon. Known for her waifish figure, high profile relationships and iconic advertising campaigns, she has appeared on over 300 magazine covers. She has had campaigns with major Italian, French, American, and British designers including Dior, Yves Saint-Laurent, Burberry and Rimmel.

Her outward appearance has made her a fashion icon in recent years, but her inner life has been more troubled. Like many celebrities she has lived in a seemingly ongoing conflict with the tabloid press, to whom she never gives interviews. At one point she checked herself in to a psychiatric centre suffering from exhaustion and admitting that she had been drinking and getting high before going out on the catwalk. More recently it was claimed that she had a cocaine habit and this quickly resulted in the loss of several major contracts.

In a world where outward beauty is often idolised, it's good to remember that even for those who enjoy outward beauty now, it doesn't last for ever. The Bible tells us that what's on the inside matters heaps more to God. This is from Peter's first letter:

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewellery and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.

In God's sight you might just be more beautiful than anyone else has realised!

15 January

Today's the day when in 2001 Wikipedia first went online. Wikipedia is a multilingual, web-based free content encyclopedia project. In other words, it's a mine of copy-and-paste information for kids across the world doing homework projects. And it's the last straw for door-to-door salesmen who have made a living from selling expensive printed encyclopaedias.

Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers, allowing most articles to be changed by almost anyone with access to the web site. It is operated by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Currently it has more than five million articles in many languages, including more than 1.5 million in English and more than half a million in the German. There are 250 language editions of Wikipedia, and 18 of them have more than 50,000 articles.

Sharing knowledge is a great thing. It's one of the things we naturally do as human beings. We learn something new and we can't wait to tell someone else what we've discovered. This desire to possess knowledge and share it with others is one dimension of the image of God in us. God is all-knowing; and all truth is ultimately his truth. What we know about things is just paddling in the great ocean of his infinite understanding of everything.

This way of seeing things keeps us humble. It's what the writer of Proverbs was getting at when he wrote these famous words:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

If you think you know everything, you're a deluded know-all. But if you think God knows everything, then you can enjoy the knowledge you do have as a gift from him.

14 January

Today's the day when in 2002 the UK was officially declared free of foot-and-mouth disease. The outbreak had begun 11 months earlier in Northumberland and over 6 million animals were slaughtered to try and prevent it spreading across the country. The crisis cost farmers an estimated £900 million. By January there had been no recorded outbreaks for 3 months so the Government department responsible for rural affairs announced that it now considered Britain free of the disease.

As usual, there was a flurry of enquiries and reports and we were all wise after the event. The Lessons To Be Learned report criticised the Government for failing to prepare for such an outbreak, and acting too slowly after the first few cases were diagnosed.

A report by the National Audit Office said warnings of a shortage of vets to deal with such an outbreak went unheeded. If only everyone everywhere had thought of everything beforehand!

One of the wonderful things about the Christian good news is that it was not God's knee-jerk response when things were going wrong in the world. The Bible tells us that he had planned in advance to send his Son to save the world at the time he chose. This is what it says in Galatians:

When the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.

The world has turned away from the God who made it but he isn't in a helpless panic about it. He had planned for this eventuality and at the right time he sent his Son to rescue us from our own failure and bring us back to himself.

13 January

Today's the day when in 1957 the first commercially produced Frisbee was made. A company called Wham-O had bought a design for a plastic flying disc called ‘the Pluto Platter' and they released the product with the slightly uninspiring title: ‘The Toy Flying Saucer.' It was not an immediate hit but two years later they renamed it ‘The Frisbee' and sales took off. Now low-flying plastic discs are to be found at almost every inhabited sunny beach across the globe.

The origin of the name ‘Frisbee' is a little uncertain, but it probably comes from the ‘Frisbie Pie Company' whose tins were used at the time by students for a similar game. (Presumably with tins it was also a more dangerous game!). In the film Back To The Future III one of the characters throws a metal pie dish at a gunman to save Doc Brown's life and he notices the dish is stamped with the words ‘Frisbie Pie Company.' So it looks like the film-makers agree with this story.

The Bible is full of people and places whose names had special meanings and origins. Jacob was so-called because he was born grasping his twin brother's heel; his name means ‘he grasps the heel.' Moses' name sounds like the word for ‘drawn out' and you'll remember that he was drawn out of the water of the Nile by the Pharaoh's daughter. But the best name of all is that of Jesus. His name means ‘The Lord saves' or if you like ‘God to the rescue.' When an angel appeared to Joseph and told him that Mary was going to have a child this is what he said:

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.

When you are tempted to sin, or feel like a failure because you gave in to temptation, remember Jesus' name and why he came: to save you from sin.

12 January

Today's the day when in 2001 Sven Goran Eriksson became coach of the England football team. Known for his calmness under pressure and widely dubbed The Iceman he became the first foreigner to occupy that role. At his first news conference he told journalists he was confident that England would qualify for the 2002 World Cup, despite its position at the bottom of its group, below Albania, following two disastrous matches. And he kept his world. Under his leadership England reached the quarter-finals of that World Cup, and the following one in 2006. The question of whether the team under-achieved during his time as coach will be endlessly debated and some of his judgments will be forever questioned. Eriksson himself never gave much away about his strategy; in fact his reserved, thoughtfulness in interviews (unforgettably impersonated by Alistair McGowan) will remain one of the hallmarks of this inscrutable Swede.

It can be uncomfortable when people don't give away as much of their thinking as we wish they would. It creates a sense of mystery around them and makes us realise we don't know everything about them. That's just how it is with God. He has revealed so much about his love and mercy and justice. But we can't pretend we know everything about him. For some people this is a cause of frustration, but in the letter to the Romans the Apostle Paul makes this fact into a song of praise. This is what he writes:

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
"Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counsellor?"
"Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?"
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory for ever! Amen.

Okay. We don't know everything about God. But he has shown us enough for us to be sure we can walk with him every day – now and for ever.

11 January

Today's the day when in 1989 Ronald Reagan gave his farewell address to the American people. After eight years as President he declared that under his leadership the United States had ‘rediscovered' its commitment to world freedom and he spoke with particular enthusiasm about the achievements of his foreign policy.

Reagan's record was a bit more complicated than he described. One of the costs of America's renewed strength was vastly increased defence expenditure, which helped create a national debt of over one trillion dollars. And the peace he believed he had brokered in the Persian Gulf did not last very long. Nonetheless, the achievements of his administration gained him much favour with the American public and Ronald Reagan left office as one of the most popular modern U.S. presidents. Needless to say, his farewell speech went down a storm.

Another great farewell speech was given by Moses shortly before his death. It's recorded at the end of the book of Deuteronomy and I reckon this would have gone down a storm too. He blesses all the tribes of Israel one by one and ends with this word of encouragement for them all:

Blessed are you, Israel!
Who is like you,
a people saved by the Lord?
He is your shield and helper
and your glorious sword.

What an encouragement that is! Maybe you could find a way of blessing someone by what you say to them today.