29th August 2025

He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18: 2 – 4

I have been on another train journey. It was shorter than my trip to Coventry; this was the brief journey to Bath to have lunch with friends. We got on at Sea Mills, our local station, and we were joined by parents with young children who, by this stage of the school summer break, were pretty desperate to find something that would amuse and occupy a whole day.

(I must insert a football joke at this point: two of the small boys were wearing their replica football kits, one was Earthy and the other was Messi!)

What a delight they were. Absolutely everything was new to these children. I guess they were familiar with bus travel but a train carriage offered so much more room and freedom. They could almost run around!

The first part of the journey is very wooded, almost Disney-like as you travel into the unknown forest. Then a tunnel. And then a series of stations, each one distinctive with exciting murals, strange machinery, exotically dressed fellow passengers getting on and off. As for the approach to Temple Meads station itself, well that was a whole new world of urban exotica.

We adults knew all this, of course. Nothing came as new to us, we had seen it all before. But these children reintroduced us to the wonders and the delights of our city, they reminded us of just how lucky we are to have such variety and interest around us.

I hope the day retained its interest for them, they must have been exhausted by the time they arrived at whatever improving activity the adults had planned for them.

And for us, may we keep our eyes open to spot the exciting, the wonderful and the potential in the familiar things around us.

Nick Parsons