Advent Short Story 1 - “Nula”
Thank you for the encouragement you have given me for these short reflections.
For the season of Advent, I shall post four weekly short stories as part of the ‘In-a-minute’ series and another couple for Epiphany.
They will actually be closer to two minutes - I hope you will grant me poetic license to stretch to two minutes! These are not bible readings or reflections but stories with an Advent theme and a clear Christian message.
I hope this is a blessing.
God Bless
Kelvin<><
“Nula”
I want to tell you a true story about Nula.
Nula was heavily pregnant and decided to go to Advent Praise at the cathedral.
The problem was that Nula arrived late and ‘O come let us adore him’ had started and the cathedral was full to the rafters when Nula walked in.
She walked round and round, along the aisle, across the back of the nave, up the central aisle, across the transept, and down the side aisle but there was no place for a young girl, eight months pregnant to sit. The place was full to overflowing.
As once in Royal David City broke out Nula’s feet were aching and she trundled outside and sat on a bench in the bleak midwinter listening to the praises of Christ the Lord resounding from the magnificent House of God. The Cathedral bench bore an inscription ‘In memory of JW Riley who died in 1986.’ Nula wondered if Riley had trouble getting a seat as well.
She noticed a bit of a commotion to the rear of the cathedral shouting and human scowling. A vagrant had laid across the doorway to the Cathedral toilets and he and his dog were settled for the night. He slept there every night and Advent Praise meant nothing to him. This doorway was the warmest place in the bleak midwinter. Any Advent praiser who felt the call of nature was growled at by this man and his dog.
The thought of worshippers dancing their way through six verses of ‘As with gladness men of old’ without the option of a pit stop made Nula chuckle. Then, would you believe it, Nula's unborn offspring pressed meanly on her brim-full bladder. She had no choice but to face the tramp or soil JW Riley's monument.
Several worshippers were having a standoff with the tramp as Nula spoke softly to the tramp; “Sir I’m 8 months pregnant and I need a wee.”
The vagrant stood aggressively, his dog growled in support as he said: “In you go love your need is greater than all these eejits.”
Nula was relieved in more ways than one to be ushered into the holy toilets by her angelic minder. While there was no room in the cathedral, Nula found an open door or rather an open heart in this tramp.
I would love to tell you that a month later Nula had a baby and called him Jesus, that would be something ending, wouldn't it. Nula had a baby a month later, a wee girl and she called her Kathleen.
The moral of the story if you haven't worked it out already is this, we can sing Carols till we are blue in the face but if we are not prepared to put ourselves out a wee bit then the Bible says ‘faith without deeds is dead,’ James 2:26.
All the best for this Advent season.
Advent Prayer
Lord of Light and Love, one candle can dispel the darkness, by our lives and through our prayers help us to bring your light into the darkness, through Christ, the Light of the world.
Amen
