Goodbye Daniel - see you in the morning....
An amazing service of Celebration for little Daniel today. As part of the congregation, it was humbling to witness two of the finest tributes I have ever heard, bar none. And to think that those speaking those amazing words were Kevin and Sarah is simply awesome. Serious respect, guys.
Such services are often mixtures of highs and lows. The whole gamut and spectrum of emotions is on display, and we also bring our biased ideas of what is "allowable" for others to see on such a day. The truth is, there are no rules to mourning - no protocol, no time frames, no rights or wrongs. There is only the moment, the experience of being, that is important.
But it also serves to bring into focus the connection between this loss and other losses, and sometimes that makes me feel guilty. I feel that I should be concentrating wholly on the person who has gone, but humanly, my body was remembering other times, other losses and other pains. I suspect others were, too, and this connectedness allows us to accept that we do not always understand, but that one day, we will.
But I got to thinking - I wonder what they'll say about me? I know that some training courses ask you to write your own obituary (!), to "understand yourself better". Not sure that this is a good idea - probably biased one way or the other. But how often do we wish to be a "fly on the wall" and listen in on what people say about us - provided that it's all good stuff, of course! I am appreciating more and more just how essential - even how vital - it is to say good things about people to their faces, to build them up here and now. For in reality, none of us know how long we have on earth. I have no guarantees that the phone call I've been thinking I'll make, the card I'll send, or the word of encouragement, will be possible tomorrow, or the next day.
So Do it now.
Without sounding morbid, tomorrow may in fact never come. All we have is today. So make a difference, and do something of purpose, in the life of someone today. Turn a negative into a positive, and allow the Holy Spirit to flow through you to just one other person, in an act of unselfish grace.
It could become contagious.....
Pat's Thought for the Day:
"We have a hope that is steadfast and certain..." - that we will see Daniel again, and that when we do, he'll probably be playing with blonde angels.....
Such services are often mixtures of highs and lows. The whole gamut and spectrum of emotions is on display, and we also bring our biased ideas of what is "allowable" for others to see on such a day. The truth is, there are no rules to mourning - no protocol, no time frames, no rights or wrongs. There is only the moment, the experience of being, that is important.
But it also serves to bring into focus the connection between this loss and other losses, and sometimes that makes me feel guilty. I feel that I should be concentrating wholly on the person who has gone, but humanly, my body was remembering other times, other losses and other pains. I suspect others were, too, and this connectedness allows us to accept that we do not always understand, but that one day, we will.
But I got to thinking - I wonder what they'll say about me? I know that some training courses ask you to write your own obituary (!), to "understand yourself better". Not sure that this is a good idea - probably biased one way or the other. But how often do we wish to be a "fly on the wall" and listen in on what people say about us - provided that it's all good stuff, of course! I am appreciating more and more just how essential - even how vital - it is to say good things about people to their faces, to build them up here and now. For in reality, none of us know how long we have on earth. I have no guarantees that the phone call I've been thinking I'll make, the card I'll send, or the word of encouragement, will be possible tomorrow, or the next day.
So Do it now.
Without sounding morbid, tomorrow may in fact never come. All we have is today. So make a difference, and do something of purpose, in the life of someone today. Turn a negative into a positive, and allow the Holy Spirit to flow through you to just one other person, in an act of unselfish grace.
It could become contagious.....
Pat's Thought for the Day:
"We have a hope that is steadfast and certain..." - that we will see Daniel again, and that when we do, he'll probably be playing with blonde angels.....
posted by PatK at
6:41 pm
2 Comments:
Pat,
Thank you for this blog - very encouraging and uplifting. I liked the "blonde" angels...
There were times in Daniel's life when I deferred things believing that we could do it later and now we will not have the chance to.
As Daniel had many times when he went into hospital I began to realise that if you wanted to do something you had to seize the day. This always reminded me of when Jesus comes again. What would I have left undone?
Thank you for upholding us in prayer, because God gave us the strength to go on.
Love, prayers and hugs,
:-)
Sarah
By
SarahB, at 1:51 am
Thought provoking as always. Yes no procrastination. He comes as a thief in the night. So we definitely need to be ready. Get right with people and most of all get right with God. Nicole
By
Nicole's Psalm, at 10:39 pm
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