I HAVE only lived in Wokingham for a few months, so I don’t remember a time when conversation in the town was not punctuated with roadworks, closures, and diversions.
Therefore, the opening of a link road (yes, it links other roads) does sound like a step on the way to something more significant.
I guess that we can dream of a day when we shall take roundabouts and level crossings for granted again, when distributor roads are complete, and those who build them have moved on.
Not just yet, of course, but every step on the way encourages us to look forward.
Church life is, in part, about being a sign of a better future.
Churches are not made up of perfect people who get everything right, but are communities where people have a confidence in what is to come based on a conviction about what has already happened.
We all look for this sort of hope elsewhere too: we want to be treated in a way that is more generous and respectful than our experience has been so far, and we want others to find the same in us.
Sometimes, we spot those signs that encourage us.
We do not see everything put right at once, but every link road completed helps us to believe that things can be better.
And people see the same in us, if we will let them.
Wesley Hampton is minister of Wokingham Methodist Church, which meets on Sundays at 10.30am.
For information, visit: wokinghammethodist.org.uk
