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

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

And yesterday we were thinking about the order of the events that will surround

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. I wonder if you'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.

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,

...