Easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
Today I had a technical problem. It is not the first time recently though I pray it may be the last. A glitch with the security of my mobile phone this morning. Likewise a problem with the storage on my phone last week which led to the disappearance of my photos.
Mobile phones seem to be the norm these days. Though many people centralise their organisation of many things around them, they are not, contrary to popular thinking an absolute necessity. Many people throughout the world function quite normally without one.
Last week, I had two occurrences. One I had received a message on Facebook from an old friend. It turned out to be a hackers viral bug that sends the same message to everyone on your friends list. Therefore it was necessary to spend several hours sending these people a message of apology and advising them not to open it or it will do the same to their friends list. Harmless enough but a nuisance to waste that time.
The second was my phones memory warning me constantly that the memory did not have any room left to do any updates. I didn’t particularly want any updates doing (?) but even with my lack of technological know how realised that this may incur further problems down the line.
I thought I would download my photographs off my phone and onto my laptop. I had over a 1,000 photos on there from probably the last year. Covering some walks with other Christians and the cross, the last months in my house, my cat’s, my kids and grandchildren, loads of Bertie. The transformation of the motor home, travelling around, visit to Israel and from here in France. Well, I thought that clearing the memory of 1,000+ photos would give my phone the space it needed to do what it needed to do occasionally.
The import of the pictures went well, however by the pressing of a wrong button the storage of them did not go so well. Not only did it delete them from my phones memory after importing, it deleted them from the laptop too! I was quite unperturbed when realising what had happened.
Today my phone network provider had sent me a message to say that my data had nearly reached its limit. Sending emails and photographs daily has increased my usage. So I needed to find out exactly what my usage is and where it is at now so that I can monitor it and top it up when necessary without going into their charging system which appears costly. I needed to download an APP, to access quickly the data usage. Simple enough. Well, it wasn’t really. The APP got installed but I couldn’t access it because the network provider informed me that the password was wrong! I tried again, still, it said I was wrong. So I reset my password, waited for the text message to come through, followed the link and submitted my new password. Wrong Password!
Isn’t it frustrating to be denied access to something that we presume is rightfully ours. Doesn’t it take us on a temporary path of “What’s happening?” and put us on the back foot when what we thought was absolutely routine doesn’t work straight away, when we have pressed the right button or number? Doesn’t it take our breath a little in shock as we turn the key in the door to our house or car and it doesn’t open. Like it has done thousand times before? Or the cold, stark reality hits us when the pin on our bank card doesn’t work in the machine and bring us into a place of immediate full concentration?
Likewise in the Gospel of Matthew 19:24, Mark 10:25 & Luke 18:25)there is a startling announcement that demands our fullest attention. Our Lord Jesus Christ after responding to a question about entering the Kingdom of Heaven, tells His disciples “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
It is a popular theory that the ‘eye of a needle’ referred to is an aperture called ‘The Needle Gate.’ A low, narrow gate on the outside of the walls of Jerusalem which could only be accessed with difficulty and any camel whose owner wished for it to pass through it would have to be relieved of all of its baggage and would have to go through only on its knees.
Jesus does not say that it is impossible but that it is ‘hard’, implying that there are going to be many strict requirements.
Jesus tells us in the Gospel of John “Most assuredly, I say unto you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. ”And again in v5,”Most assuredly, I say unto you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
There is nothing that we can do to earn salvation. It is by God’s gift of grace, mercy and faith.
Hallelujah and Amen.
I did get the password accepted. I lost all of the photos, but none of these things or anything else will affect me the way that they would have done once upon a time.
God Bless