Recently on Facebook, a little message has come up saying – who would you most like to meet and dine with in history? There are so many interesting writers and artists I would have liked to have met. Jane Austen is probably near the top of my list, along with Constable (poor and tortured in love for a lot of his life), Coleridge, Gerald Manley Hopkins, L.M. Montgomery, I could go on….

But what about Jesus? Suppose you received an actual invitation to dine with Jesus. Would you go? What would you say to him? How would you behave? This is exactly what happens to Nick Cominsky in the book, Dinner with a Perfect Stranger.

A New York bestseller, this has to be one of my favourite ‘Christian’ books ever. Probably because its not ‘religious’ in any sense of the word, its just two men having a rather nice upmarket dinner in an Italian restaurant talking about the issues of life and things they struggle with. The conversation seems normal and interesting. Jesus comes across as a regular guy. Well, yes, he is American, but the book is set there, so this seems reasonable.

I have just discovered that there is also another book in the series entitled ‘A day with a Perfect Stranger’, which features Nick’s wife meeting with Jesus on a plane.

Perhaps you think this is a bit too much of a coincidence? I think I would agree. The first book is definitely the best. There is even a DVD on Amazon of the dinner, entitled ‘A Perfect Stranger’, although I’m not quite sure why the film makers have substituted Nicola for Nick. Who knows? But worth checking out. It’s free to view if you are an Amazon prime member but won’t cost much if you’re not.

So what do you think? Would you like to have dinner with Jesus? You may not have Nick or Nicola’s privilege of dining with the actual person of Jesus but in the Bible Revelation 3 verse 20, Jesus says – “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me.”

Food for thought this month!