It was clearly meant to be "an offer you cannot refuse!
"OFFICIAL NOTICE," it said. "CONGRATULATIONS!" it said. All in large letters. Then it went on to tell - in this case, Mary, my wife - that it was time for her to celebrate ... she had won one of the prizes that were pictured.
There they all were! A car ("Brand New 7 Series BMW"); a 21"TV Set; CD Player; Mobile Phone; Fax Machine; a Pram (!! - at our age?) ... and so on. Just telephone this number ... We laughed about it, and dropped it into the waste paper basket, knowing full well there had to be a " catch": it was too good to be true. Then, I had second thoughts.
I picked up the letter again, and read the small print - the conditions. It certainly was small print. I had the distinct feeling you were not meant to be able to read it. But I did. "Phone calls cost £1 a minute, Duration to claim prize: 9 minutes." There followed a rather indecipherable address in the Netherlands.
So often, when we see offer you can't refuse!", we find there's a catch somewhere, a sting in the tail. In this case, a starting cost of a £9 phone call! And so many people fall, because they don't always read "the small print" the conditions the "catch".
Yet there is one offer in this old world of ours that indeed we cannot or ought not to refuse. It is the offer of LIFE. True! Life in all its fullness, in fact. Not necessarily an idle, easy life, but one that can see us through anything and everything the world can throw at us ... if we dare to takes this offer seriously!
It is the offer made by Jesus. The offer to "Come... Follow me." And in that offer there is no small print - no conditions - for "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." He didn't say, "If you will stop sinning, I will die for you." He took us as we were, for He knows us as we are ... and He still died for us.
He will never force that offer on us: it is up to us to respond. But, if we are prepared to commit ourselves to Him, to follow His way rather than our own, then the prize is far beyond our comprehension. It is no less than life eternal!
That really is an offer we cannot - surely, we dare not refuse. Why not take it up this coming Christmas ... this coming Millennium ... or, better still, today!
W.W.W.