jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj

Not long ago, my laptop decided it was in love with the letter "J". Everytime I hit "j,u,i,k,m,n,or ,h," the keyboard would spill "jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjs" all over the page. Sometimes, if I was quick with the next letter in the word, I could get away with just one or two 'js', but this made me sound like sjomebody frojm scandinavjia.'
After several weeks of a good deal of deleting 'js' I took the keyboard out of my Dell laptop and sprayed it with fresh air from a pressurised can. You aren't supposed to shake fresh air cans because if you do, they spray white stuff like dry ice on the subject of your spraying. I didn't read that on the can until after I'd done it. I banged the keyboard on the table from every possible angle and dislodged not a few pieces of debris.
Replacing the keyboard I was mildly confident that my days as a Swedish writer were over.
Ajlas I was wrjong. My next option was a new keyboard, the cheapest one was from Vilnius in Lithuania and I wasn't too sure it wouldn't put 'js' in words as a matter of course. Anyhow, I sent off for it and in due time it arrived. I watched a Youtube video to refresh my memory on how to replace a keyboard. I managed to find one where the man didn't swear every other word and I got out my tool kit.
There was no need to take the whole computer to bits (wish I'd watched this video the first time I did it) I only had to remove the battery, one screw, flick a couple of plastic catches and slide a screwdriver carefully round the top casing. All went well until I came to replace the one screw. In the past it has been insinuated that I may have a screw loose and in this instance the people who suggested that were correct. I had placed the screw carefully on the table next to the laptop but search as I might, the screw was not to be found.
I lay on the kitchen floor with my cheek pressed against the quarry tiles and looked along the floor. This is the way my mother taught me to look for small things you have dropped on the floor and in many cases it works marvelously well. However, on this occasion my eye level peering was fruitless. I did find quite a few small items on the kitchen floor but none of them were the screw.
Baffled, I got to my feet and began to wander round looking in places the screw could not possibly have got to. That's when I found the screw. I did not see it, but as it stuck in my bare foot, I felt it.
I replaced the keyboard, the screw and the battery and my computer reverted to the English language.
I was very happy to have found that screw, and it made me think of the woman in the Bible who lost a coin.
I'm not sure she lay with her cheek on the floor but like me she was glad when she found it. Jesus told that story to illustrate how important to Him  people who don't understand about his love are, and how much he wants them to be restored to his loving care. I do need to explain that Jesus hasn't lost you, he knows exactly where you are. He bent very low to pick you up and in the end it caused him immense pain to restore you. The Bible tells us in Colossians 1, that when we discover God's love and respond to it we are 'delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of God's dear son." We can stop repeating our mistakes and start anew. Good eh?

£200,000 to clean Umaniec's graffiti.

Why are people surprised that a man called Umaniec sprayed paint on a work of art worth nine million pounds in order to propagate "Yellowism" ?
What is surprising, is that a) two fat maroon lines down a black canvas are worth nine million pounds. b) the Tate gallery spent £200,000 to rub eight words off it. c) it took them 18 months to do it.
I listened to one of the ladies who restored the painting, she had to keep leaving the room because of the deep impact of looking at the meaningful layers of oils, pigments, resins, glues and egg. No wonder it took eighteen months.
But I got to thinking about how God knitted me together, layer upon layer and how He looks at me with wonder even when other people think I'm a bit disappointing. I thought about how hurt He was when I got spoiled by the graffiti of sin and selfishness. He valued me a lot higher than 9 million pounds, and it cost immeasurably more than £200,000 to restore me. Now, because of the sacrifice of his own Son, I am totally clean and fully restored. In the words of Tate Director Nicholas Serota, "The project has been far more succesful than anyone dared hope at the outset."