3 Flights and a Baby

Phil Jenkins | 14:21, Wednesday, 11 April 2012

They laughed at us at the Al Italia check-in desk at Heathrow.

"But why are they sending you to Milan, then Roma and then back up to Turin? Milan is only an hour from Torino. They should have arranged a shuttle from there."

Then they looked at each other, before turning to my wife and me with a broad grin. "It was very cheap, yes?"

"Not really," I said, though I admit that cutting cost had been a factor. "We just wanted to get to Turin."

A knowing smile swept across the man's face. "Aha," he said, nodding his head. "You going to see good football, yes? Juventus are in new stadium and are playing big match for Easter, yes?"

I didn't want to disappoint him so I told them the real reason. "We have friends in Turin and they have just had a baby."

"Oh, a new baby, that's beautiful, yes. That's very nice – a new baby for Easter – that's very nice, yes?"

This time I agreed with him although I did wonder whether he had got a bit confused with Christmas!

Three flights and lots of coffee later, we arrived safely in Turin. We were met by Huw Williams whose wife Alison had come home from hospital that day, Good Friday, after the birth of their first child three days before.

Huw and Alison are mission partners with our church. They moved to Italy in September to lead the International Church of Torino.  It was wonderful to visit them and share their joy at the safe arrival of beautiful little Hannah Katerina, "Kitty" for short. The gift of new life is a miracle that never loses its wonder.

On Easter Sunday we were able to share the amazing good news of new life in Jesus – the one who was dead but is alive for evermore. That surely is a miracle that never tires in the telling.

We celebrated the reality of resurrection life which, as that international congregation graphically illustrated, has swept across the world in the two millennia since the angels announced, "He is not here, he is risen."

New life at Easter time. The man at the check-in desk was right after all.