The night I met Jesus in the lift !

Hello friends,
                   When I was 8 years old, I vaguely remember watching the TV mini series Jesus of Nazareth, with the amazing Robert Powell playing the part of Jesus Christ, and to this day the image of his portrayal stays with me, in fact when my Vicar asked me, "When you think of Jesus what do you see"?
The image I imagined is this image below,

To me this was the image of The Messiah, to me in this picture I see the image of Jesus, A caring face with incredible eyes, a look of Christ if I ever did see,
So low and behold I shocked when  I was when at the age of about 28  I bumped into Robert Powell, looking nothing like the picture above looking, rather untidy, and impatient. We were in a lift together, at first I didn't recognize him, until he looked at me, he gave me the most tiniest of acknowledgments and our eyes met, the lift went bing, and he was off never to be seen again. I thought to myself, Jesus, that was Jesus!
As I write, I still look at this picture, I look at his eyes and I see Jesus, please just take a moment to look at his eyes before we crack on!
Okay, thank you for that, The reason I mention this event is it also coincided with one of the many great events in my life. One of my heroes, was the brilliant Les Dawson, and I had followed his career after seeing him at the tender age of 15 in a show at the Blackpool grand, he was in a show called Run for Your Wife, I enjoyed it so much I went twice during my weeks holiday on the Fylde Coast.
 To cut a long story short, Les Died in 1993, I was really upset, I remember exactly where I was, and I miss the humor of a comedy giant. The summer after his death a gala tribute night was to be held also at the beautiful Blackpool Grand . The ticket prices started at £100 and went up to £500, it was going to be a night of stars, Brucie was on, John Inman, Lionel Blair, Frank Carson, Les Denis, Roy Barrowclough, The Roly Polys, and Robert Powell !
My wife treated me to tickets I was over the moon, we went the whole hog and stayed at the Savoy, and for the first time in my life, I had a room with a Corby Trouser Press.
We planned to make the short walk to The Grand but after about 30 yards, the effort was too much and we hailed a taxi.
The driver, automatically knew where we were going as we were in best bib and tucker. He said "It's busy down there you know? There's TV and allsorts". I replied "Great I can't wait." He then inquired if we fancied having a bit of fun, and informed us the road was cordoned off and access was strictly for VIP guests heading for the red carpet. He went on to suggest that when the police stop him, he would say "One for the red carpet" in the hope we would get access.
He then went on to suggest that when we exited the cab he would say in a very loud voice "One hundred and fifty quid" and encouraged me to pretend I was handing him two hundred, and telling him to keep the change."

So with a very reluctant Sarah sat beside me I said "Yeah go on then" and so that is what happened. We were stopped by the police, the cabbie did as he said, and we were permitted access up to the VIP red carpet, We got out, he did as he said and I replied, "Thanks mate keep the change". At that point, Sarah scarpered inside The Grand, leaving me to turn round and find papparazzi, camera crews and hundreds of members of the public staring at me, I swear I heard someone say "Who's that?" The silence of the press "downing tools" was deafening and the cameraman, looked frustrated and confused that I was a face of no distinction what's so ever. However I played it real cool with style and panache and strutted into the foyer.
This story had a sting!
 There was punishment for our dishonesty, and it came in the most humiliating of manners.
As we got into the foyer the ticketmaster, asked to see our tickets, and I confidently presented them fully expecting to be escorted to our deluxe seats in Blackpools greatest entertainment emporium. BUT, BUT,
But the snag was this, the ticket master, took great joy in informing us that the tickets we had presented were not for the VIP entrance, infact not even for the slightly well off, and for that matter not even the relatively hard up. There were in fact for the cheap seats, "In the Gods" with the peasants of the ticket world, and the only way we could get access was to walk down the red carpet, and literally climb over the barriers that were provided, to keep riff raff like me and Sarah out of the VIP area.
Our humiliation was complete as we wandered down the carpet over the barrier and to take our places on what was nothing short of a park bench with a bit of cloth!
I learnt a lot that night, Les Dawson was truly loved by the celebrity world, It gave me a memory I will never forget, but more than anything it was the night I saw the eyes of Jesus, in his scruffs, in the lift, in Blackpool, in the Savoy Hotel.
A loose link I know, but a fine demonstration that you can find Christ in the most unique circumstances, in the most unlikeliest of places, when you least expect, the trick is to know when he is there.
With love and prayers to you all.
Alextheanglican!