SO have you used your vote, if you have one? 

Is there still time to go to the polling station or are you reading this after the polls have closed and the outcome is known? 

By Friday, June 24 we will know whether we are staying in or leaving the EU and there will be no more uncertainty at least in the general direction the country is heading. 

Except we will never know what the future might have been if the vote had gone the other way. 

What we can all know is that some will be delighted and others will be disappointed at the number of ‘X’s’ each side received. 

Whatever the outcome, we will get on with life.

Make me wonder how we use ‘X’s’ to mean different things, when we vote we use our ‘X’ to signify support or ‘Yes’ for the issue or candidate; a teacher marking a maths paper it means “You got it wrong”; on a card to a sweetheart it means, “I love you”.

Just imagine the confusion if we could not distinguish between them.

The pupil might say, “Teacher loves me – a lot”, the loved one thinks “what does ‘Yes, I support you’ you mean?”; the political candidate could think “I got it wrong” – of course, we often think they do.

How wonderful it is to know that in Jesus there is no confusion.

He loves us and gave Himself for us even while we were in rebellion against Him and his Father. 

His promises are always ‘Yes’ and ‘Amen’ to us all the time. 

And once we know Him he never says ‘you got it wrong’ even when we have, when we confess our wrongdoing He picks us up, forgives us and says there is no condemnation in Him. 

KEITH HASLER 
Cirencester Street Pastors