...and it's chucking it down with rain.  No thunder and lightening here but very wet - arks may be being built even as I 'speak'.  Final preparations for tomorrow's Pentecost service are just about there, and thankfully it won't matter what the weather does as it's all indoors.  But I have to admit to a little bit of disappointment, in my mind's eye Pentecost should be bright and sunny, characterised by joy and happiness, however fleeting, a sense that all is well and all will be well.

So what was it actually like, the day before Pentecost?  Somewhere between a dozen and 120 people gathered in the safety of a house or room, waiting and wondering just when this promised paraclete might show up... how long it would be before the great consumation... It was just another day in Jerusalem, the season of a minor festival for sure, and lots of tourists and visitors arriving.  Maybe it rained, maybe it was stormy.... who knows?

It all put me in mind of this Abba song(!):

Maybe there's something to take from this expression of the shift that arises from a new human relationship... the 'before' is forgotten, even though its form can be reconstructed from memory.  After Pentecost no-one was concerned with the day before, what mattered was the days ahead...