Read the holy book this Christmas

It was 12-foot wide, bright orange and impossible to miss, despite the holiday crowds at Euston station. There was nowhere else to look - it was the bald patch on the guy in front, or the billboard. So I read the ad:

"Less HATING more EDUCATING"
Discover the scientific truths in the Qur'an.
Order your free book.

From then on, my thoughts went roughly like this:

• Wow, I've never seen an Islamic ad like that before.
• It's clever to refer to scientific truths in the Qur'an - it gets people wondering if there are any, and what they might be.
• I see they're charging post & packing for the free book. Would we do the same for a free Christian book? We'd probably offer a free ebook instead.
• I wonder if the Qur'an is available as an ebook? Or would that be a problem for the Islamic view that the book has to be treated carefully, stored on a top shelf, etc? (I've since discovered several English-translation ebooks that are free.)
• I wonder if they will get the same amount of hate mail that Christians recently got for the "Not Gay" bus ads? (I've checked, and yes - one tweet I discovered reads: "They appear to be the Islamic equivalent of the Christian homophobic death cult 'The Alpha Course'" - neatly bashing Christians and Muslims at the same time.)
• It's Christmas time - will I see any Christian ads about the real Christmas on my journey? (No)

I would have loved to see a Christian equivalent to this, especially the invitation for people to explore the facts for themselves. But even this Islamic ad can be a great conversation starter. I am often challenged by Peter's words to…

"…in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect" (1 Peter 3 v 15).

Sadly, I'm usually challenged by this just after I've missed an opportunity to give an answer! But I'll be travelling through Euston twice more over Christmas (and maybe you will too?), so will be looking for an opportunity to talk to someone at the time, or perhaps take a photo and use it to start a conversation with friends or family at a later date. I don't think we should be worried about ads for the Qur'an. In a similar way to Paul in Athens (Acts 17), we can use them as opportunities to point people to the truth about God, and introduce them to the holy book they really need to be reading this Christmas.