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A wee while ago I was coming home at night from a conference in Edinburgh and I passed a tenement with what looked like a student flat up on the top floor. The windows were wide open, there was music and party noise and two lassies sitting in the open windows were singing along and, as it happened, waved at me as I passed. So I shouted up to them, ‘is it not the guy on the ground who's supposed to be serenading the lady at the window?’ and they shouted back, ‘well, on you go!’ So I did. I sang Mama Cass’s ‘Dream A Little Dream of Me,’ doffed my cap, and they give a little cheer and a clap.

Of course, as I turned round there were two really rough looking guys coming along staring at me - they looked like they had recently been promoted from Neanderthal to Cro Magnon - and I thought, here comes trouble. Well, to my surprise, one said, ‘I like your style big man!’   Hmmm. Here’s another tale.  Just recently I was talking to an elderly woman in my congregation and because it came up naturally in a conversation about women’s self-image I said, ‘you are really very beautiful.’ She paused, and said to me, ‘no one has ever said that to me.’ Despite having had a marriage of over 30 years and the usual boyfriends when younger, no one had ever said that.

I don't know if those lassies remember being serenaded, and I can only guess what that woman thought about being told, sincerely, that she is beautiful. Maybe it's all forgotten, meaningless, but I doubt it. I have a pretty deep suspicion that one way to express my faith in a God who loves us is just make others’ lives richer.  I think we all have the opportunity to affirm people, cheer them up, give them something special to remember. And I don't know what the effect will be if you do something similar to someone you meet today, but I am sure it's worth it!