The queue was long but I finally arrived at the desk. The electoral officer turned the page of his book and looked up my name.

He had thousands of names there, it was a book of life with all current addresses of everyone who lived in the area. If your name was not there you were virtually a non-person. You had no identity and could not be given a place and a voice in the community.

You were required by law to have your name on the electoral roll and if you broke the law a penalty could be imposed.

It was a relief to hear him read out the number and street where I live.

“Who lives at this address?” He asked to verify my identity.

“I do,” I replied.

He handed me the voting papers that gave me a voice in the constituency.

John, in the Book of Revelation, saw exactly the same scene.

‘Books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life,’ he said in chapter 20, verse 12. You had to be enrolled to have your name and address there. Otherwise a penalty applied.

I paused.

I put myself in that queue and stood in line. Desperately I hoped my name was in the book because if I were not enrolled I had no voice and no place there. If I had not obeyed the law and enrolled, a penalty would apply.

I heard my address read out and with terrifying clarity and the officer asked, “Who lives at this address?”

Then a man called Jesus stepped in front of me. “I do,” he replied.

He turned to me and smiled, saying softly ‘Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.’ 1st John 4:16.

Who lives at your address?

Elizabeth Price, Team writer with Just a Minute reprice@dragnet.com.au