The Value of Family

(Posted August 17, 2023)

“Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten.” ---David Ogden Stiers

“Grief and resilience live together.” – Michelle Obama

I am asking for your help this Sunday.

During Joys and Concerns, we will celebrate the life of Jacob -- a young man whose mother has never been able to have anyone pray for him.

She was brought to my attention during my vacation. I’m asking you to adopt her into our church family this Sunday and celebrate Jacob’s life – a life that was marked by a progressive, devastating illness that never dampened his caring, loving personality and kindnesses to others. The illness eventually became too much for Jacob to bear.

Help us on Sunday to celebrate a life well-lived, for “Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten.”

A Time of Transition

When I left for vacation, we were in the grip of late July heat. As I write this message, the katydids are singing in the backyard, signaling that in just a few weeks, we will be greeting the first crisp breezes of autumn pushing into our town. It is, indeed, a time of transition.

Vacation, too, is a time of transition. I discovered all the homebound tasks and projects I’d left undone during the year. This time I made a point of reconnecting with dear friends. We are all older when we first met 50 years ago. We may be older, but I hope, wiser than we were then. Our bodies may creak a lot more, but our spirits are still young. We’ve learned to savor time spent in one another’s presence, because we also know that time is something that becomes so precious when we don’t know how much time remains.

Our friends are very much the part of the family that we get to choose. One thing you can’t do is take vacation from “family” or the kind of values that a family keeps.

Water Ministry

I was pleased when I returned to find our church family continuing the values we have to bring comfort and safety to our community by providing water in the heat wave. The ice chest and cold water you all were providing to anyone who was thirsting in the summer heat – well, that was just genius.

Congratulations to Greg Pings and John Harmon for conceiving of this idea and kickstarting it. And of course, one of the nicest things about good ideas is that people want to be a part of it. Thank you to all those who, since the Water Ministry began, have provided water, ice and -- when the cooler got “borrowed”-- a new cooler for all who are thirsty.