In the letter ‘His Word’ (July 25), John Spiteri acknowledged that he had no words from God, which reminds me of a Scottish painter who did have words from God.

His name was Smokey MacGregor, who was very interested in making a penny where he could, so he often thinned down his paint to make it go a wee bit further. As it happened, he got away with it for some time but, eventually, the local church decided to do a big restoration job on the outside of one of their biggest buildings.

Smokey put in a bid and, because his price was so low, he got the job. He erected the scaffolding, set up the planks and bought the paint and, yes, I am sorry to say, thinned it down.

Smokey was up on the scaffolding, painting away, the job nearly completed when, suddenly, there was a horrendous clap of thunder, the skies opened and the rain poured down washing the thinned paint from all over the church and knocking Smokey clear off the scaffold to land on the lawn among the gravestones, surrounded by telltale puddles of the thinned and useless paint.

Smokey was no fool. He knew this was a judgment from the Almighty, so he got down on his knees and cried: “Oh, God, Oh God, forgive me; what should I do?”

And, from the thunder, a mighty voice spoke. “Repaint! Repaint! And thin no more!”