It's the timing

At the beginning of the week I was at the Macdonald Highland Hotel in Aviemore for an overnight conference as part of a series of events which are to do with "Church Without Walls"
It came at just the right time to bring encouragement to a number of people, about 160 of us... although as I drove 150 miles each way through gale force winds and driving rain, it didn't seem much like the right time of year to have a conference in the highlands.
I took my camera but never ventured outside to use it. There wasn't much time to do so anyway as I was heavily involved in the music. So, no pictures of Aviemore, but instead a picture from a much sunnier and much warmer, Hong Kong. The picture was taken in a park in HK in 2005.
I thought it was a very witty way of making a point, as well as a pretty clever piece of landscape gardening.

Being 'Green' is very fashionable these days, of course... and not before time, if we want to save the planet!
Anyway, I remembered the photograph in the middle of this week.
On Wednesday, as most people will know, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, delivered his latest (most people think his last) Pre Budget Report. Then, as tradition dictates, his opposite number, George Osborne, gave his response. In doing so he made what could (and should) have been quite a funny joke about Gordon Brown trying to appear 'green.'
"People say that he has only become green recently. I think that's most unfair. He's been green ever since that meal at Granita's. The Prime Minister remembers it. Mind you, and I know the Prime Minister doesn't live in Islington anymore, it says something about the state of the Labour Party that Granita has just changed its name. It's now called: Desperados."
Full marks to the speechwriter. Very clever.
But, sadly, it didn't get much of a laugh... because of the way it was delivered.
"It's the way you tell 'em!"
But, it's true, isn't it?
So much of comedy is about timing and delivery not just the joke itself.
I think God has a great sense of humour. He must have to put up with us all the time.
But, then, he also has a perfect sense of timing.
"When the right time finally came, God sent his own son..." [Galatians 4:4]

But don't forget either what Mike Scott once wrote in a song:
"Well, if you want to give God a laugh- tell him your plans" [Long Way to the Light]