Entertaining Angels

Don't forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it! - Hebrews 13:2

Monday was a good day.  I really felt all there.

The sort of day when I get time to wash and dry my hair.

I took out the recycling and I mopped the kitchen floor

I washed a load of laundry and I hung out a load more.

The children were all fed and washed, and clothed - before midday -

I thought, I’m ready now, if someone wants to come and stay.

I knew a guest would be impressed with my housekeeping flair,

I’ve heard I could be entertaining angels unaware.

I waited for an angel, but it really was a shame;

I wasted all that housework, ‘cause the angel never came.

This afternoon I’d had the kind of day I really hate.

I was still in my pyjamas and the kitchen was a state.

The children hadn’t slept, and they were acting really loopy,

and one of them had hit her brother with a plastic Snoopy;

The baby climbed the stairs unseen, and, though he never falls,

He did find all his sister’s pens - and used them on the walls.

I reached a pan from a high shelf, it fell down with a clang,

It landed on my foot, I swore - and THEN the doorbell rang!

I didn’t answer at the time, and later when I checked,

They’d given up and gone.  It was those angels, I expect.

Then later on, I thought about how Jesus was a guest,

He visited two sisters, his best friends, to have a rest.

While Mary sat and listened, Martha couldn’t find the time.

I wonder whether Martha had a day a bit like mine.

And I’m sure she wished that Mary would get up and do her bit,

But Mary knew that it was more important just to sit,

For Jesus loved to see them, and that’s why he came to stay,

and it was never very long before he had to go away.

Next time I’ll ask those angels to step over the debris,

I hope they will ignore the mess and spend some time with me.

Just for a bit of fun: I wrote this four years ago for a competition. I didn't win, but how quickly can you work out what the main rule of the competition was?!

After Ball, Charming Depressed

After the ball, the only people left awake were the servants, sweeping away the smashed glasses and sticky pools of spilt champagne. Ballrooms always look larger after everybody has gone home; sad, empty, vacuous spaces with a chill in the air. Charming perched on top of a stack of chairs, glumly holding the glass slipper in his hand.

"Didn't she find me attractive?" he wondered with a sigh. "Evidently my conversation was too boring. Frogs get girls quicker than me around here." Groaning, he reached out and drained an abandoned half-glass of champagne.

His introspection was interrupted at this point by his page, Iago, who entered sleepily, having been waiting for hours to put his master to bed. "I've been looking for you everywhere!" the disgruntled boy yawned.

"Just go to bed, Iago," replied the prince grumpily, "I can put on my own pyjamas tonight."

"Keep on like this, and you'll be alone every night" grumbled the page good-naturedly. "Look, Charmers, if you liked her so much, why give up hope? Maybe she had a good reason to run off like that. Nice girls don't disappear without at least saying "Ta for the dance" unless they have a good reason. Obviously she was just in too much of a hurry to tell you what it was."

Prince Charming sighed and stretched, clambering down from his stack of chairs. "Quite so, Iago, quite so" he conceded wearily. "Right as usual. Still, what can I do?"

"Tomorrow's another day," said Iago cheerfully.

"Undoubtedly it is, my dear Iago, but what can I hope that tomorrow will bring? Voicemail? Without even knowing her name, I am helpless."

"'xept that, unless I'm very much mistaken, sir, you're currently holding her very unusual shoe, which is probably magic and certainly unique."

"Zounds!" cried the prince, "So I am!"