Parcel Farce

The usual story. An email advises one of a parcel's arrival. The intended day of delivery is unsuitable, so it is re-arranged to a Saturday.

But the parcel never comes, and an email arrives explaining that ‘the address was inaccessible’; yet no card was left, no knock was heard. The driver, of course, could not be bothered to call; he wanted to finish early on a Saturday.

“We will try again on the next working day” the deceitful email promises. That day I am out again, visiting. Whereas my current postman is excellent and well deserves his Christmas tip, his colleagues at Parcel Force are lazy, or daft, or dishonest, or all three. They failed to deliver.

Delivery drivers were not a major feature of life in the ancient world. ‘Deliverance’, on the other hand, is a frequent theme in scripture, often in the form of one crying out to God to effect rescue and relief. For example, in Ps 144:7:

Send thine hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of strange children.

Although God’s aid and rescue does not always occur in the manner or timing of our expectation, it is never once compromised by laziness, stupidity or dishonesty. I would sooner trust God with my life on a bad day than trust Parcel Force with a packet of anything on their best day.

And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Ps 50:15