Unlocking the Key to Hope

It is a beautiful spring day, and I need a new key, so I have headed to my local locksmiths to get one cut. What I am not expecting is a lovely little ‘light through the cracks’ encounter …

***

The middle-aged man at the counter greets me with a grin. “How can I help you today?” he asks, with a broad Jamaican accent.

I explain my need for a new key, holding out the one that needs to be replicated.

He turns to look at a large selection of keys hanging from hooks on the wall behind the counter, and selects a blank key that’s the right size and shape for the new one that I need.

I ask how he’s doing, and I don’t receive the stock answer of ‘I’m fine’, which so many British people are prone to give. Instead, he answers honestly – and out pours a sad tale of how his uncle, then his cousin, have died just recently. Both deaths were unexpected, one after the other, in quick succession. The whole family have been left reeling.

Even as I’m listening, I sense a surge of courage-and-compassion rising up from deep within me, a familiar feeling to which I’ve become accustomed in recent years*.

I breathe deeply, send up an arrow prayer, and plunge in.

“I hope you don’t mind me asking,” I say, “but did your uncle or cousin have any faith?” I sound more confident than I feel.

He responds immediately, while simultaneously lifting the lid on the cutting machine, and placing the blank key beneath the blade. “My uncle was one of the Windrush generation,” he tells me, “so he had a strong Christian faith.” He pauses a moment, and then adds. “As for my cousin, I just don’t know.” There is sadness in his voice.

Feeling encouraged by the first part of this answer, I pursue it a bit further. “Did your uncle’s faith give him a sense of hope about life after death?” I ask, and he looks puzzled.

The machine is deafening, as it grinds the blank key into the shape it needs to take.

Over the noise, I explain how, if his uncle was a Christian, he would have believed that Jesus rose from the dead. How Jesus rising from the dead means death has been conquered once and for all. How those who follow Jesus can be assured that death is not the end.

It feels incongruous to be having this kind of conversation over such a din.

“Yes,” he says hesitantly, biting his bottom lip to concentrate on what he’s doing. “Yes, I guess he did have hope.” He bends over the key, brushing it clean. “His funeral definitely felt hopeful. The songs we sang. The prayers we prayed. The pastor who preached. Yes, it was definitely full of hope.”

“What about you?” I tentatively probe – before boldness kicks in. “Do you have any hope about life after your death?” I ask. “Do you know where you’re going when you die?”

He looks up from the key and gives me eye contact. “I can’t say I’ve ever really thought about it,” he says, and I can see tears forming. “I’m hoping it will be a long time until I die.” He pauses a moment. “But I think my uncle would have wanted me to have his hope.”

It doesn’t take much, but I explain the Gospel in simple terms. I invite him to find the same hope that his uncle had. I offer to pray a simple prayer, which he accepts, following along, saying ‘Amen’ at the end. And I suggest he finds a local church, maybe starting with the one where his uncle’s funeral took place .

“Thank you,” he says at the end, handing over both keys, new and old. “I really wasn’t expecting this kind of conversation when I came into work today.”

“Me neither,” I respond, as I pop the keys in my purse and get out my card to pay. “But I think God might have ordained it”

“I agree,” he says with a grin.

***

In 1 Peter 3: 15, we read: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”

How many of you have people, who God puts in your path, who are grieving and without hope? How many of you even notice? What if God might want to use you to bring his “light through the cracks” to them?

If you are a Christian, how prepared would you be, in this sort of scenario, ‘to give the reason for the hope that you have‘?

What would happen if God were to give you opportunities, like this one that I had at the locksmith’s? What if he were to prompt you to offer to pray? Would you be bold in accepting the challenge, or would you shy away?

As ever, constructive comments are welcome below.

*If you have time, please see here for when I first experienced a surge of courage-and-compassion.

Photo by Filip Szalbot via Unsplash