For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven:

Ecclesiastes 3:1

Today is the first Friday of 2024, and one of my intentions for this coming year is to be more consistent with my “Photo Friday” posts.

The idea (for those of you new to this blog) is to share a grab-bag of images that collectively tell the story of the week without repeating any from earlier posts.

I always believe initial trajectory is important, so I’m not beginning 2024 with any “resolutions” so much as I am making sure I am launching in the right direction!

Meanwhile, Andrew and family are headed back to Bahrain, Naomi and crew are on a cruise, we are beginning our second month in Tarboro, and exciting opportunities for the coming 12-months abound.

This is an idea that fits well with my understanding of faith, and our identity as disciples. Not heaven as a fait accompli so much as our ongoing commitment to the journey. Rather than having the magic password to Paradise in The Sweet By-and-By, Jesus is my companion and guide along the way.

I have no doubt that when this life is over I will continue to know and love God because of Jesus. But until then, my salvation is an active process of following, and of joining in with God’s initiatives of love, grace, mercy, justice, light, truth and life.

I was especially thinking about this Thursday, when I drove to Alexandria to be with my brother-in-law Tom (Rebekah’s late sister Rachel’s husband) at the memorial service for his sister, Debbie.

Every time we mark the end of the earthly portion of someone’s life I think about the journey they took, and the opportunity we all have to live in the kind of abundance Jesus continues to invite us into.

So here is this week’s potpourri of “Photo Friday” images:

In love, and because of love – DEREK

In order: With my niece Faith in Alexandria; left to right Faith’s husband, Steve, Faith, Tom, Reed; service order for Tom’s sister Debbie McMahan; the Calvary churchyard at night; Andrew and Alicia’s anniversary; the best hamburger of the week; David, Beks, and Geoffrey on the cruse boat; Max watching the Tar River rise again.