Saturday, October 08, 2005

OF Beginnings and Endings

This afternoon I was at a baby shower. Twins born at the end of August. (As it happens this couple was one of the first weddings I did after arriving here--the message about setting a date was on my desk when I got into town). At the same time that the shower was happening there was, somewhere else in town, a "tribute" being held for someone whose funeral I expect to do before Christmas. And of course part of me says I should have been there too. But realistically that was not doable (and the latter not only was announced later but it was hardly announced--I only knew about it by passing a small poster in the mall).

But it does strike me how these two events are both so incredibly apt on Thanksgiving Weekend. At one new life was being welcomed. At the other the gifts of a pioneer in this town were being honoured. Such is the glory of the church. Few other places allow, nay encourage, us to be part of the whole life cycle, to be truly intergenerational.

Of course it doesn't end yet. Someday I will baptize those twins. Someday I will bury that pioneer. And life will go on. Life will go on. Thanks be to God.

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