I'm beginning to think that the unofficial motto of our town is, "You can never have too many roundabouts." If you drive from one end of the town to the other, along a beautiful tree-lined avenue some 8km (5 miles) long, you'll pass no fewer than ten roundabouts - and each one is a work of art, with its own story of what it represents. When my parents were here on holiday a few years ago, we drove all the way across town with our video camera, making a movie of all the roundabouts on the way. At that point there were eight of them; a ninth one was unveiled in 2010 and the tenth one (top picture above) was just completed this week.
In Spanish, they're called "glorietas" or "rotondas" and, when I first came to live in Alhaurin, I was struck by the way the roundabouts were everyone's landmarks when they needed to give you directions. If someone was telling you how to get to their house, they would invariably begin by saying, "You know the roundabout with the 100-year old tree?" or "You know the roundabout with the three balls?" and then they would give you directions to their home from there.
In life too, we need landmarks. It's much easier to find your way to the right destination if you have a clear idea of where your starting point is. As a new school year begins, we're also beginning a new programme of discipleship input with the children and young people at church. Among the topics for the coming year is a series of lessons looking at the ten commandments. If our children and young people understand these basic landmarks for life, they'll have a good foundation for making their way into the future.
