And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:17-19

I have several potentially iconic photos from Sunday I could lead with this morning. “Communion” at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church; “in the pool” with the children at Old Key West resort; or “on the boardwalk” after dinner at The Disney Beach Club.

The boardwalk photograph makes a great banner image for this post because it is such a classic. Geoffrey, who posed nicely for the Campbell family portrait, decided “enough is enough” and walked away just at the critical moment. “We don’t need another try,” I said. “This is reality and it tells the story.”

“Reality” is that a family with three children always teeters on the edge of chaos! It’s the default setting. Why pretend otherwise?

St. Lukes for Communion:

This is why Rebekah and I started the day at worship. The reason we have always started Sundays at worship is not (and this is important, so pay attention) because Rebekah was a minister and employed by the church… but because even with only two children our family often teetered on the edge of chaos!

If we had stayed away because it was hard to make church happen, then the chaos would still have been there… but it would have been chaos without the love and support and encouragement of a covenant community.

We were in church when our kids were young because we wanted to raise our family in and around a community focused on Jesus. We are in church now – retired and free to make any of a hundred other choices – because we are rooted and grounded in faith, and we know that following Jesus is best understood and practiced in the context of community.

So we took communion today, in the company of the good folk in the Methodist Church, and we thought about the meaning of being rooted and established in love, and of being filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

And that is what we want for our family still today, to really grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.

So we played games, and we talked, and we splashed in the pool, and we enjoyed a wonderful meal at the Ale and Compass Restaurant, and we walked the boardwalk, and we groaned when the children told corny jokes, and we listened to the baby laugh and fuss in turn, and we planned Today’s excursion to Universal and Islands of Adventure…

And we talked about our other family – Andrew and Alicia and Mr. T. – in the Middle East, and we are concerned about them with all the chaos and violence and the threats of war.

We hold all of them so closely and dearly in our hearts, and we love so deeply, and we are overwhelmed with all the emotions, and we know that we have loved and taught and encouraged them with all the imperfect parenting we could pull together.

But, most of all, we “pray that they, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that they all (Andrew, Alicia, Mr. T., Naomi, Craig, David, Beks, and Geoffrey) may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

Filled with all the fullness of God! This is what we pray every day for our children and grandchildren – DEREK