Escape

One of the best stories this week has been that of the Japanese macaque that escaped from its enclosure at Highland Wildlife Park near Kingussie in Scotland on Sunday.

Yesterday, on the fifth day of searching, the escaped monkey was finally recaptured. It had stopped to eat at a garden bird-feeder.

Great Yarmouth’s new Herring Bridge is now officially opened. There have been months of delay… a potential rare water voles’ burrow… an exploding World War Two bomb. Yesterday cars went over it and boats went under it.

For years there has been a rivalry between Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth. There were conflicts between fishing fleets; gents my age can remember fights between gangs… Lowestoft folks say that the new bridge is a good thing – because you can escape from Yarmouth quicker.

An article in our local paper started: ‘The number of people to reach 100 years old has more than doubled in England and Wales in the past 20 years.’  In 2022 a record 15,120 people received a 100^th birthday card from the king…

Apparently North Norfolk has the oldest average population in the UK… people who have escaped the challenges of youth, and so far have escaped the sadness of death.

Later today we shall share in a thanksgiving service for the life of Kim, who died recently, aged just forty. Our church will be full. We shall laugh, cry and remember Kim together, sad that she’s no longer with us, but pleased that she has escaped from her suffering, and escaped to a far better place.

The poem ‘Footprints’ will be read… the story of two sets of footprints in the sand: one belonging to Kim, and the other to her Lord.

Kim loved the beach.

At the very lowest and saddest times in her life there was only one set of footprints. God had not escaped from her; she had not escaped from God. When there was only one set of footprints her God carried her.