God has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.

Ecclesiastes 3:11-12

Okay, friends. It’s September, it’s still way too hot, the world is still a mess, and life remains fraught with challenges and complications… But, the promise of each new day stands as an invitation that it is impossible to discount.

That’s why I chose this photograph, taken yesterday in Orlando by our daughter Naomi. It features their youngest, Geoffrey, looking up at his sister, Beks, as they play on the slide together.

Geoffrey is two, and Beks is ten. And the slide illustrates – to me – something of the journey our tousle-haired grandson is beginning.

“Goodbye” at the other end of life…

At the same time, at the other end of the spectrum, today is my Auntie Olive’s memorial service in England. She lived a little over 100 years.

What an amazing life she enjoyed! She and (my favorite uncle) Norman were an inspiration in many ways. They served as missionaries in Hong Kong and later Samoa. She taught me how to use chopsticks.

The Kemps exposed our family to the exotic world of living overseas and travel. I remember their epic trip home from the Far East, including several weeks traveling around an equally exotic destination, the United States. Olive and Norman helped move my focus out of southeast England and on the great wide world.

Some of Olive’s stories – like the tale of being adopted as a baby and then reconnecting with her biological mother and sister a lifetime later, and of singing peace and hope in London’s underground shelters during WW2 – will always be a part of me.

Please take a moment at her service, I asked, to whisper grace and peace from me.

When Olive was Geoffrey’s age (two), she could not have imagined the trajectory of her life and everything that has happened in 100 years. But she always knew the presence of God, the reality of constant faith, and the promise that is life experienced to the fullest.

May we all take such a journey – DEREK