By Rev Bill Armstrong, retired Church of Scotland minister

Come the 15th October, the old pound coin will no longer be legal tender; don’t be caught with a stash of worthless currency. The bright, shiny, multi metal new pound coin has been in circulation for some months; the new coin is said to be counterfeit proof; the old one apparently not.

The analogy could be applied to life. Call it real or counterfeit, or genuine or false; the distinction is not always obvious. There are people we learn to trust; some are suspicious.

Over the years there were people who made a bee-line for the manse door: some were labelled scroungers, others salesmen, some even from other religious denominations. I remember particularly a young man called David, a Jehovah’s Witness, who called many times after we had stopped discussing the relative merits of our beliefs. Then there was Donald who came regularly and to whom our family became attached.

Donald was on the road. He had the habit of wandering away from home without warning. A phone call after many months told us that he had married and settled in the Midlands, but he always had a hankering to move back to Scotland. Eventually he found a home in Ayr. Regular contact was restored. We attended football matches together; a venture into one of his interests.

One day I tried to invite him into my way of life in the Church; but he never came. Remembering his past and his assumed status in life he said: ‘It’s no’ for the likes of me’. His honest answer hit me hard. Is the door of the Church and our lives open to the outsiders? Is Christian currency real or counterfeit?

Donald has been lost to this life. Where is he now? For his self-effacing honesty he could be singing with the angels.