This week on Things Unseen, as we approach the celebration of the first coming of Christ

at Christmas time, we're also looking forward to his return, his second coming.

And yesterday we were thinking about the order of the events that was around that one great

event. When Adam sinned his life was thrust from forward gear in obedience to God back into

reverse gear, disobedience and rebellion. When we've ever tried to drive in reverse gear,

it's not easy, it's harder to go straight and somehow it's not a very fast or smooth

way to go. And perhaps we can think of what happens at the return of Christ is that he

will thrust everything, the whole gearing of creation, from reverse gear into forward gear.

Everything will be transformed, run better, more efficiently, more comfortably, we might

even say more easily, it will be as it really ought to have been. And that's what the resurrection

will be like. If you're a regular with us on Things Unseen, you'll probably know that

I love golf, although I've become a bit of a disaster on the golf course. But years

ago I used to keep an old driver in the trunk of my car, and if I'd spare 30 minutes I'd

maybe find a driving range. One day, I think we're talking in the 1980s now, I was happily

hitting golf balls in a driving range in Philadelphia near where I worked, and there was an

older man in the next bay, and he was using a top-of-the-line, latest technology driver.

And he leaned over and he said to me, have a try with this one son. And somewhat reluctantly

I took up his offer, and I immediately felt the difference from my own old driver. This

one felt and looked fabulous, and it was easy to swing and the ball flew off the club face

sailing past the balls I'd hit with my old driver. It seemed effortless, easy by comparison.

And I handed it back to him a little reluctantly, knowing it was a far more expensive club than

I was ever likely to buy. And then I had this heart-lifting thought that was more than compensation

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