There’s a lovely scene in the John Boorman film Hope and Glory, where a family emerge from a shelter to find that their home has been flattened by a Nazi bomb. They’re all upset, but the mother reminds them that the important thing is that they have survived. The house, its contents - these are just things.
I was reminded of this exchange while listening to a phone-in on Nicky Campbell’s show on Radio Five Live. It was the day after Tony Martin was convicted of murder after shooting a teenage burglar. One caller stated, quite coldly, that she would be prepared to kill to protect her television or microwave from theft.
Another listener tried to suggest that a human life - even the life of a burglar - was more precious than that, but her words fell on deaf ears.
I can’t help but think of a wandering story-teller who once said that if someone steals your leather jacket, then you shouldn’t stop them taking your T-shirt as well.
I’m not for a moment trying to minimise the traumatic impact of burglary. But we can’t look to Judge Dredd or Dirty Harry for role models - we have not been appointed as judge and executioner. The difficult teachings of Jesus remind us that our possessions, our homes, are just things. If we jealously guard what is ‘ours’, we run the risk of forgetting how much is God’s - and the value of the people around us.