We wake this morning to news that Lehman Brothers is filing for bankruptcy and that Merril Lynch has agreed to be taken over by the Bank of America. I am not sure that this will have a massive effect on me, if I am honest, and part of me wishes the media would wake up to the fact that America is not the centre of the universe. However, that is not what what I am really pondering this morning. I am wondering if a takeover is always such a bad thing. I know that it is not nice to have something that you have invested in overrun by a corporate giant. I also realise that all too often things of great value are swallowed up in the name of profit. Supermarkets, for example, are not always better than the grocers they replaced, although we must admit that there is a high degree of romanticism involved when we make this judgement. However, sometimes organisations, and even people, cannot survive on their own. Is a takeover so bad? I guess it depends on who is doing it, and how they are doing it. I observe that some people fear that God wants to take over their lives. I don't believe he does, in the common sense of the phrase, but he certainly wants to provide resources that we cannot find on our own... I am not sure I like takeovers in business, but when it comes to God... ?