“If you are looking for a
baggage storage service to take care of your luggage while you are out and
about around London you have come to the right place when you come to
Paddington Station. “When you arrive you can take a walk down to Platform 12
where you will find our Left Baggage Paddington service. Here you will be able
to leave your luggage in our capable hands allowing you to further enjoy your
London trip.”[i]
It had once been a
splendid steamer trunk, bright blue with brass hinges, brass corner caps, and a
brass lock. But it has seen better days,
the blue is faded and dingy, the brass badly tarnished, and one of the brass
corner caps is missing. Now it sits
abandoned in left luggage in Left Luggage on Platform 12 at Paddington Station
waiting to be reclaimed by someone who no longer wants or needs its musty
contents and is perhaps embarrassed both by the sad contents, the rags and
trash of a former life, and even more embarrassed by having packed it, brought
it, and abandoned it.
When the steamer trunk
has gravitated from left luggage to unclaimed luggage the Stationmaster flips
through his great ring of keys, finds the right one and with a twist snaps the
lock open. Over the years the
Stationmaster has opened many abandoned trunks; there are rarely any
surprises. This trunk, like many others,
was stored in left luggage towards the end of a long trip. What does the Stationmaster find? Dirty laundry! Dirty socks, dirty underwear, dirty shirts,
dirty trousers; and adding a distinct aromatic bouquet, dirty sneakers.
What do you have in your
old spiritual steamer trunk? "Remember
not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it
springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and
rivers in the desert. The wild beasts
will honor me, the dragons[ii]
and the owls, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give
drink to my chosen people”[iii]
For us, the trunk doesn’t
just go away. There is no spiritual
Paddington Station Left Luggage; instead we just go around dragging the trunk
behind us. It needs to be unpacked and
the Stationmaster, Jesus Christ, does do laundry. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”[iv] All those old images of the aging Old Year
being replaced by an infant New Year were false. Now half way through the Lent many are
dragging behind them that old steamer trunk filled with last year’s memories
and the memories of years before, all pressed down and shaken together. It takes an act of will, a surrender of the
right to open the trunk before the old can actually be made new.
No comments:
Post a Comment