I just meet Ehud’s wife. (Ehud was one of Israel’s famous judges – a left-handed assassin who knifed an oppressive king.) The location was the checkout at the local supermarket. I had a trolley full of groceries. She, the poor thing, had just one item. “Please go ahead,” I said. “No,” she replied with a smile; but I insisted. So she put her bottle of lemonade near the checkout, but then proceeded to pull twenty other items from her bag! And then paid for them with a credit card held in her left hand!

Ehud was a clever man, who constructed a clever sword, and strapped it to his side in a clever position. Then he used a clever ruse to outwit a gullible king. “I have a secret message,” he said, knowing full-well that no one can resist a secret. And when all the attendants had been dismissed, Ehud drew close and unloaded his weapon into the king’s rather large abdomen; in fact, such was the thrust, that the sword disappeared somewhere behind the royal ribs.

Ehud is a special character, and not really a role model for the ordinary Christian. Ehud was called, but we are not, to try to outwit others. Gullibility is not a virtue, but nor is ingenious disingenuity. Just plain and honest dealings with others. No hidden surprises strapped to our thighs, nor hidden motives behind our smiles, nor hidden surprises in our shopping bags. Just what you see is what you get. Lefthanded or not.