Crossing Back

It is a poor photograph, but one may still detect a couple of young deer idling in the field next to Salem Chapel, which I snapped after locking up a few Sunday nights back. I rang my bicycle bell to see if they would react, which promptly caused them to skedaddle.

Earlier that day, one of the deacons and I were driving to Hetton Chapel for the afternoon service. Another young member of their species bolted out of the hedges lining the A59 in order to cross that busy road, More through good luck than good management, it ran across during a decent gap in the traffic…until it decided to turn back. Perhaps it did not find a suitable gap in the opposite hedgerow, or it changed its mind, but it decided to reverse its route and return south. The driver was skilled, and he managed to swerve his Volvo to prevent contact. We were briefly shaken, though I daresay the fawn more so. For deciding to turn back, he nearly never made it to adulthood and would have become crow-food.

Many of us are persuaded that real Christians cannot fall away, yet scripture is awash with warnings about turning back:

But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:39)

Crossing the road is dangerous; crossing back, lethal. So keep going!