19th November 2022

When Homer’s Odysseus fired an arrow through twelve axe heads, I thought I was in the realm of fiction. To prove his identity, and to win the hand of Penelope, it was a pretty impressive feat, but surely impossible. But knock me down with an arrow-feather!…. a Danish man recently shot seven arrows through the keyhole of a door. Check out Lars Andersen, who not only set a new world record, but surely sent a grim warning to anyone tempted to spy!

However, there is a story in the Book, of a feat more impressive. Of shooting an object bigger than an arrow, through a target smaller than a keyhole. In fact, an object bigger in pride than a camel, through a target smaller in size than a needle. The Great Archer once said: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And of the two, he did the harder. Hundreds of times.

Like Abraham and Nebuchadnezzar and Luke the doctor and Joseph of Arimathea. And David and Abigail and Barnabas and Lydia. And Joseph and Esther and Zacchaeus and Mary. And Moses, who ‘regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward’. People of means and of wealth, but who were saved from their love of money by love of something greater. Someone greater.

DM 19^th November 2022