Mark Day...

What a night we had last night! In case you didn't know, yesterday (April 25) was St. Mark's day. Now, I've never celebrated this before, but living next door to an Italian does this to you. She told us a while ago that it is traditional in Italy to celebrate your 'name day', and we made a start last year for Tim. We decided that Mark Day should be the first day of the barbeque year, and preparations were made. The weather looked decidedly dicey all day, and in the afternoon the rains came, but by the time I got home from work it was rather warm. Very sunny, in fact.

We made burgers and vegetable kebabs with Japanese sauce. We grilled sausages and big pork chops. There was rice salad, tomato salad, homemade salsa for dipping, homemade cheesy garlic bread, stir fry and roasted potatoes. It was a feast. We were joined by a number of good friends (who can be seen in the picture above), and all in all we had an excellent time. I couldn't recommend a name day barbeque more.

After the food was polished off, and we could eat no more, the party headed to the village green, where we played a little Fricket. This game is a combination of Frisbee and cricket. The 'bowler' throws the disc as hard as he can at the 'batter'. The batter must try to catch the disc with one hand, and without moving their feet. If they achieve this, they must throw the disc as far as possible, and run between the wickets as many times as they can before the bowler taps the wicket with the disc. If the batter's throw is caught, the batter is out. It's a great game. Before too long, though, bad light stopped play, and we headed in for cribbage and Fluxx. A good night all in all.

Things were soured slightly this morning, however. In my rush to get into the house from the supermarket last night in order to get on with the cooking, I left the front panel on my car stereo. Hence, when I went to the car to go to work today, I found a big screwdriver hole in my passenger door, and nothing but a bunch of wires in the slot where my stereo used to be. That's the third break in I've had since September. It's getting a little silly now. I only just had the hole in the door repaired from the last time they got in (when they took nothing; just had a look around), and it wasn't cheap. I think I'm going to patch it up with duct tape this time.

Not to worry. My cd player was slightly dodgy anyway. The lights on the display panel all stayed switched on constantly, so you couldn't read it, and it was not in the habit of playing discs that were burned on my computer. I was looking for an excuse to replace it.

Still, all this gives me a reminder of scripture. Just like the person that took my stereo, Jesus is going to come like a thief in the night. If I had have remembered to take the front panel off my cd player, they would have walked past, and there wouldn't have been a problem. Because I didn't prepare for the possibility of the thief, I was caught out.
When Jesus comes, he's not going to steal from you - he's coming to give life. But only to those that are prepared. Have you remembered to take the front off your stereo, or are you risking gettting caught out?