I have been wondering how the prophets of old would have written about the credit crunch? Obviously they would only have said what God inspired them to say, but I do wonder. I can 'hear' them saying for example: 'In those days men and women gave themselves over to the love of money. Their children were placed aside, their worship relegated to a mere irrelevance, their possessions and prospects elevated and the LORD was grieved. So God gave them over to inequality, to insecurity, to family breakdown, and to an endless dissatisfaction. And behold, man's pre-occupation with wealth was so great that few stopped to notice. And so God, in His great mercy, cast the financial systems into ruin that men and women might stop and notice the futility of their search for meaning and return once again.' Or indeed the prophets might well have written of the Lord's anger burning at the oppression of the poor, be it in body, mind or spirit. I am not saying that this crunch is a divine judgement, but I do believe that it is an invitation to search afresh for grace. We live in a crazy world, but the good news is partly about the security that we can know in God. Let's not be afraid to invite people into it.