Thought for the Week

George Bernard Shaw made famous these words: ‘You see things and you say, “Why?” But I dream things that never were and I say, “Why not?” ’ John F Kennedy borrowed these words in a famous speech in 1968 in the campaign for his presidential nomination when he said: ‘Some men see things as they are and say, why; I dream things that never were and say, why not.’ We are in the wonderful and mystifying season of Advent when the God of Heaven becomes present on earth. Jesus came to us as a revolutionary; as someone who would turn the world’s values upside down; as someone who said the first would be last and the last would be first; who said that the poor would inherit the Kingdom of God and the rich would be turned away empty; who told the religious elite of the day that they were a bunch of hypocrites. No wonder he got himself in trouble. But Jesus had the God dream, the dream of how things could be if God was in charge and not the rulers of the world. Dare we dream of how things could be if this was really the case? Dare we dream of a world where Kingdom values rule? Dare we dream of a world where integrity and honour are the norm instead of the exception? Dare we dream of a world where the poor are cared for? Dare we dream of a world where no child goes hungry to bed, or cries in fear? Dare we dream of a world where all are valued regardless of colour, race, ethnicity, sexuality or gender? Dare we dream these Kingdom values? Advent is the time to dream.