Local Zealots

Yesterday morning, I opened the front door to take some trash outside, and two slips of paper fell to the ground. One was an invitation to summer bible school and the other was an invitation to attend worship at the same church.

I thought to myself, When will these people give up? Why do they keep coming here? I've told them that I wasn't interested and that I wasn't religious. One time a guy came to my porch here and told me about the "Golden Rule" of doing unto others as you would have others do unto you. Then he asked me, "Imagine if the 9-11 hijackers had had that philosophy?" I told him that I thought it was a bit more complicated than that. Furthermore, and I can't remember if I told him this or not, Christians don't have a monopoly on that policy.

I've also told their children, whom they sent up to my front door, that I wasn't interested and to have a nice day. What more do I have to do, I thought.

That's when I remembered that just to my left, sitting on the porch, were three--not one, but three--Nativity sets that my wife had just finished painting and spraying with a clear coat. She spent about a year off-and-on on this project, and it just so happened that they were sitting outside when the zealots showed up.



I wonder what the missionaries would've made of such a coincidence. They probably would've just said that that was a coincidence. They usually don't make a big deal out of coincidences. They would say that there was a fairly high probability of that happening since they've been visiting so frequently and Krista left them outside for a few days anyways. It seems like people like that are always saying, "Well, there's nothing strange about that. It's just a coincidence, and there's no reason to make more out of it than that."

I, however, suspect that it is a sign. A sign that I will be visited much more frequently by people who wish to save me from eternal damnation and boost church membership a bit.