Paperwork ... and more paperwork.

It was cold, grey and raining outside. It was so miserable that it would make a happy person miserable, and a miserable one more miserable.

I was indoors in my office. Heating full on. And miserable. Because I had a pile of paperwork to do. Tax returns to prepare. Invoices to sort out, pay and file. Letters to reply to or accidentally on purpose put into the shredder. Final reminders reminding me once more that they are final reminders. Written in red, in bold, underlined and in CAPITAL letters.

As I sat there, busily counting my paper clips, an Angel of the Lord appeared. He tapped me on the shoulder. I fell off my chair in fright. He helped me up and asked me to follow him.

I was soon in front of St Peter. He was in his office too. He had a hundred times more paperwork than me. And great tomes of books everywhere. He struggled to lift one of them off its shelf and onto his desk. I tried to help him.

He smiled and said the other day one of these tomes fell off the shelf and knocked him unconscious for a day. They found him asleep on page 376.

He sat at his desk and asked me for my Form PAX 1.

"What's that?" I asked unknowingly.

"It's your entry Form," he replied gently, "it is like a boarding pass on a plane or ship. Have you got one?"

"No ... I haven't," I gulped.

"Oh dear ..." he frowned, "no PAX 1, no entry to Heaven!"

"Does that mean I go down?" I asked gulping emptiness in my throat.

"Oh no ..." he smiled, "no soul goes to hell by mistake. Every soul is saved and is due to come here eventually. Those that go to the other place are not lost, but misplaced. Their owners have chosen to misplace their PAX 1 Forms deliberately. They knew what they were doing and chose to throw away their PAX all the same. Peace is a gift to everyone. Some choose not to want it. Is that what you did?"

"Of course not," I raised my voice a little, "I was never given a PAX by anyone."

"I think you'll find that you have. You obviously mislaid it. Close your eyes and search deeply into your past, search into your heart. Have you got any PAX there and forgot all about it because you have not used it for a long while?"

I closed my eyes for a while ... then opened them and the paper clips were still there all over my desk.

Peace be with you.