Once upon a time there were two people called Mr Important and Little Miss Humble. Mr Important wore smart clothes and carried an expensive phone. When people smiled at him in the street he didn’t smile back or say hello because he was always on his way to an important meeting with important people and didn’t have time for unimportant things like smiling.
Little Miss Humble often had her jumper on back to front and a few crumbs from breakfast in her hair. When people smiled at her in the street she smiled back a bit nervously, but didn’t say hello because she thought, “Why would anyone want to say hello to me? I mean – I am no one special. No reason for anyone be interested in me
Mr Important had his own website, Mr Important.com. He had thousands of followers, but no real friends, because the only thing he talked about was himself, and that got pretty boring. Little Miss Humble had lots of friends, but she didn’t often message them because she thought no one would want to hear from her, because they had other more important friends.
One day it was raining so both Mr Important and Little Miss Humble dashed into a nearby church to get out of the rain.
“Might as well say a prayer while I’m here.” Said Mr Important.
“Might as well say a prayer while I’m here,” said Little Miss Humble.
So Mr Important prayed: “Look God I don’t honestly have a lot of time for this, but you made me, and when I think about how incredibly important I am, more important than anyone else I know, I just think, wow, amazing, awesome.”
And Little Miss Humble prayed: “God, I’m a mess and I don’t know what to do about it.”
Just then God’s Holy Spirit came into the church, though it looked like Dave the caretaker with his piercings and tattoos. Dave the Caretaker saw Little Miss Humble praying and gave her a wink and a thumbs up.
Then Dave the Caretaker went over to where Mr Important was sitting, and he gave him a bit of a look. And suddenly Mr Important felt himself shrinking. He was definitely getting shorter. He wasn’t just shrinking – no, he was growing younger! Mr. Important shrank into his spotty teenage self and then into his muddy-kneed schoolboy self, and then he shrank some more. He became his toddler self, and then, lo and behold, there was a baby wearing a nappy lying where Mr. Important had been. He tried to say something indignant but couldn’t, because he hadn’t learnt to speak yet. “Mamama” cried Baby Mr Important crossly.
Dave the Caretaker smiled at Baby Mr Important and said.” Unless you become as a little child, you can never enter the kingdom.”
Then Mr. Important felt himself growing back, changing from baby to toddler to child, to teenager to his normal adult self again. What on earth had happened? Had he dreamt it? Feeling confused and shaken he rushed out of church and fell headlong into a puddle.
Little Miss Humble was feeling different too. When Dave the caretaker smiled at her she knew that God was smiling at her and saying: You are forgiven and loved, just as you are. She walked out of church feeling warm inside, and some how taller too. As she came out of church she saw a man had tripped over in a puddle and seemed to have hurt his ankle. Little Miss Humble plucked up her courage. “Hello, have you hurt yourself? Can I help?”. The man looked up at her and smiled back. “That’s really kind of you…are you sure you have the time?
And Dave the caretaker who was just closing the church doors, looked at them both with a twinkle in his eye.
Frances Eccleston, October 21