Stuck in the Doorway of Life
As the huge black steam locomotive draws its long train into the pretty country station a deathly hush falls upon the waiting crowd. The station master dourly waves some children back from the edge of the platform as the village band begins to quietly play. With notes full of tenderness the trumpets sound. The violins start to warble their beautiful sweet melody, and the nervous bystanders wait with bated breath for the train to halt its passage.
The engineer leans from his cab and salutes the station master with a grimy hand whilst the cheeky looking young fireman looks over his shoulder, the toil of the long journey forgotten, and waves gleefully to a group of old women gathered, clutching hand bags and umbrellas. All along the row of fine carriages there are windows open with heads poking out… strictly against company regulations of course! As the train slows, the crowd begins to find its voice as one by one, here and there someone was calling to a loved one, a friend, or business acquaintance.
“Sam, did you get the paper?”
“Hello Ma! I am glad that trip is over!”
“Janet! My oh my! You have grown since I last saw you!”
“Maisy and Phil, how is the new cow doing?”
And so the calls pass back and forth. But finally the great black monster comes to rest with a final wheezy puff. The fireman leaps down to uncouple the engine from the carriages, to move it away to water and coal the now thirsty Locomotive... and the Station Master moves forward to open the carriage doors.
The passengers start to step down… there is the old fellow with grey hair and a waist coat. There is the rowdy family with a young puppy. There is the two old women chatting happily together about the latest gossip they have heard about their neighbour’s daughter’s son’s wife.
A group of business men step down with hats in hand. They are discussing a major technical deal they are working on to outwit an opposition company.
Away down at the rear of the train a little boy leaps off and scuttles into the crowd… perhaps he was a stowaway? Whatever he was, we hardly get to see him… other than his brown hair and short pants… We do notice however that he is barefoot. What we could not see was his bright blue eyes with a fearful haunted look. If we had of seen them we would have wondered why.
Up near the middle of the train there is a little commotion. Swift chatter is going on just inside the doorway of one of the carriages. The platform has begun to clear, and the puffing engine has gone to be refuelled. The gruff station master has gone back into his office to sort out the paper work for a foreign traveller. But as we move towards the raised voices we here a shrill laugh followed by an uneasy growl.
As we approach we see a lady is jammed in the doorway. Burdened by her many possessions and unwilling to separate herself from them, she has become stuck when she tried to leave the carriage. The few people left in the carriage try in vain to push the stout woman through the door. People gather outside to watch the spectacle. We smile as we see a man, perhaps her husband, leant forward and say, "Its alright my love… we’ll get you out in a jiffy!” Yes, they will get her out, but it was her own greed that got her there in the first place.
How often are we like that woman? How often do we want to hold onto the things of this world… and when we become jammed or stuck we cry out for help? We live as we please and then expect our friends, our loved ones and church families to set us free from our bondage. Yet in truth, it’s up to us in the beginning… not to choose the ways of the world… then we won’t get stuck when problems strike.
Written: 28th January 2011
By Adam R. B. Reeve
The engineer leans from his cab and salutes the station master with a grimy hand whilst the cheeky looking young fireman looks over his shoulder, the toil of the long journey forgotten, and waves gleefully to a group of old women gathered, clutching hand bags and umbrellas. All along the row of fine carriages there are windows open with heads poking out… strictly against company regulations of course! As the train slows, the crowd begins to find its voice as one by one, here and there someone was calling to a loved one, a friend, or business acquaintance.
“Sam, did you get the paper?”
“Hello Ma! I am glad that trip is over!”
“Janet! My oh my! You have grown since I last saw you!”
“Maisy and Phil, how is the new cow doing?”
And so the calls pass back and forth. But finally the great black monster comes to rest with a final wheezy puff. The fireman leaps down to uncouple the engine from the carriages, to move it away to water and coal the now thirsty Locomotive... and the Station Master moves forward to open the carriage doors.
The passengers start to step down… there is the old fellow with grey hair and a waist coat. There is the rowdy family with a young puppy. There is the two old women chatting happily together about the latest gossip they have heard about their neighbour’s daughter’s son’s wife.
A group of business men step down with hats in hand. They are discussing a major technical deal they are working on to outwit an opposition company.
Away down at the rear of the train a little boy leaps off and scuttles into the crowd… perhaps he was a stowaway? Whatever he was, we hardly get to see him… other than his brown hair and short pants… We do notice however that he is barefoot. What we could not see was his bright blue eyes with a fearful haunted look. If we had of seen them we would have wondered why.
Up near the middle of the train there is a little commotion. Swift chatter is going on just inside the doorway of one of the carriages. The platform has begun to clear, and the puffing engine has gone to be refuelled. The gruff station master has gone back into his office to sort out the paper work for a foreign traveller. But as we move towards the raised voices we here a shrill laugh followed by an uneasy growl.
As we approach we see a lady is jammed in the doorway. Burdened by her many possessions and unwilling to separate herself from them, she has become stuck when she tried to leave the carriage. The few people left in the carriage try in vain to push the stout woman through the door. People gather outside to watch the spectacle. We smile as we see a man, perhaps her husband, leant forward and say, "Its alright my love… we’ll get you out in a jiffy!” Yes, they will get her out, but it was her own greed that got her there in the first place.
How often are we like that woman? How often do we want to hold onto the things of this world… and when we become jammed or stuck we cry out for help? We live as we please and then expect our friends, our loved ones and church families to set us free from our bondage. Yet in truth, it’s up to us in the beginning… not to choose the ways of the world… then we won’t get stuck when problems strike.
Written: 28th January 2011
By Adam R. B. Reeve