"Lookin ta see if the thistles hev grewn high enough ta spray," he replied.

How easily we are deceived by appearances. I have discovered that behind many a girl's sweet little face lurks a mischievous spirit. Even as the Pharisees stood to all intents and purposes praying on the street corners they were scheming how to fiddle rich widows out of their money.

As we walked along Margaret and I admired the spring flowers. It was April time and so violets were still in bloom and dandelions and daisies were making an appearance. There are certain plants everyone associates with spring - colourful bold flowers like daffodils and primroses. However there is one that I especially look out for which is so often overlooked. Garlic mustard has no bright flowers but is a cheerful, lively, green and covers waste ground in shady places. There are people like that - people who are easy to overlook - but who thrive in life's shady places. Jesus remarked on the ostentatious behaviour of the Pharisees. They made broad their phylacteries and every one took notice of them. Jesus said that they have had their reward!

The main reason I was walking through Thelnetham Fen with Margaret, other than for the pleasure of her company, was to be shown some adders - Englands only poisonous snake. I had never had a good view of adders in the wild. A sunny day in April is a good time to see adders as they come out to bask in the sunshine to warm up after their long winter hibernation. Eventually Margaret found two coiled up by a tree stump. I would never, ever, have found them without a guide. Their camouflage is superb - which is why it is easy to stand on one and discover it the hard way. Margaret had been there before and she knew the way.

Jesus said that it was foolish to follow a blind guide. The Pharisees were blind guides. Jesus said both the blind guide and the one who follows him usually end up in the ditch. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. He can show us the way to heaven.

Several years after the experiences recounted above I was out in a small fishing boat off NE Hokkaido. My friend Tommy Bamber, a Japanese bird watching guide called Take and I were looking for tufted puffins. The fisherman whose boat we had hired was a refreshing change from all the other Japanese we met on our trip to that country. He wasn't in to bowing, smiling or being photographed. The only time he managed a smile was when we paid him. He reminded me a lot of Tiddler, the man who looked for thistles. Anyway our guide, Take, kept giving instructions to the fisherman. We roared here, there and everywhere at a much greater speed than I had anticipated. My friend Tommy certainly had not anticipated it because he was nearly thrown over board by the initial acceleration. We did not discover any tufted puffins! Finally the old fisherman took off and sped in a direction of his own choosing. After a few minutes he throttled down and we drifted on the gentle swell. There - swimming in the water a few metres away - were two tufted puffins! I suppose if we had asked him why he didn't take us to them in the first place he would have replied, "You didn't ask the way."

Jesus cannot show us the way to heaven unless we ask him to!