Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts;
    let them proclaim your power.

Psalm 145:4

Today, Tuesday September 26, I want to take a few moments to share some random thoughts and images from the whirlwind weekend.

Funeral weekends are always this way. There is never enough notice for families to make anything other than last minute plans. So people come and go in a hurry and then we try to grab as much as we can from the experience. Hugs, stories, memories, love, closure – and sometimes tensions too. Everything seems to be both presented and experienced in ALL CAPS and bold print.

And there, in the middle, are the children. While the adults talk and try to get everything done and waste precious moments on busy things and worry about everything there are the children, just experiencing the moment.

Thank God for the children.

Geoffrey used the weekend to experience his first haircut! (see pics, below) Wow! He has always been himself, very much a beautiful little boy with wild hair. But now, just a few snips later, all of a sudden growing up and well on his way to three.

His brother and sister are amazing. They shine so brightly, they are thoughtful and – as so often happens with a tagalong sibling – they are constantly picking up responsibility for their little brother. I remember what Rebekah said about her youngest sibling, Jesse. “Oh, we (the brothers and sisters) raised him; mama and daddy were far too old by then!”

Then there was teaching grandmama Rebekah how to play a computer game, and giving grandma’s wedding and engagement rings to Hannah, and being at Wake Forest Presbyterian Church….

So much in the way of serendipity, and unexpected blessings, and unexpected pains and sorrow.

Too much of so much. It’s just as well we only have two parents to lose, because I am not sure I could handle this much intense emotion more often!

In joy, and in sorrow – DEREK