Last night I was taking part in an ecumenical 'Stations of the Cross' service at the University Chapel. Tomorrow night I will be wahsing feet (if anyone comes forward!) at an ecumenical Maundy Thursday service.  In each of these towels feature - and towel is the object we are invited to ponder today.

As the author notes, the towel in the story of Jesus washing his disiciples feet is almost incidental, yet without it the story does not, cannot, work.

That got me thinking about the incidentals of my own life, the things I don't even notice, but without which the story would be very different.  And not just 'things' also people - who is it that I don't notice, that I won't notice today, even as I hurtle from one sphere of service to another?

Thank you, God, for the incidentals, the taken-for-granteds, the inivisible people, who I may never now about, but without whom my life would be so much less.