verge

Easter is a time to celebrate life and new birth in Jesus Christ. This Easter was especially joyful in our home this year. My “younger” brother (by about 15 minutes), Jeremy, and his wife, Heather, announced that they are expecting their first child in October! It was a complete surprise to us all. They’ve kept us guessing over the years. "Will they or won’t they have kids?” has been a hot topic of family debate for some time. Jeremy is the last of the three brothers to have kids. My wife and I were the first, with Zach and Erica. My “older” brother (by about 10 minutes), Josh, and his wife, Marty, were next, with Caroline. Now, finally, Jeremy and Heather!

I had my doubts about Jeremy and Heather. I didn’t think they would ever have kids. To tell you the truth, it never really mattered to me. I never understood the debate that always swarmed around them having kids. I thought they were happy and that’s all that mattered. Heather comes from a large family and wasn’t in a hurry to have children and neither was Jeremy. I knew they enjoyed their lifestyle—being able to drop everything and leave at a moments notice, having the extra money to have some nice things, going on relaxing vacations now and then. But, things change...people get older and the things we find important at one time in our lives don’t seem as important later in life. With Jeremy and Heather, it seems they were playin’ us all along! They’ve had it all planned out for some time.

In the end, we were the ones who were happily surprised—surprised by new life! Imagine that! Surprised by new life on Easter! Go figure! And it was planned all along.

A Prayer by Joy Cowley

Let us give thanks for the beauty we know, autumn colour and wet spring blossom
nature pinging against our hearts, causing them to slow in awe,
thanks for sunlight green in a wave, for diamond bright beaches and starry nights,
thanks for the beauty in children's eyes.
Let us give thanks for the loveliness that is concealed from us,
the melting miracle of snowflakes, the geometry of crystals deep in the earth
and colours dreaming in paua shells, or life under a microscope,
hidden, yet when seen, so familiar it's as though our souls knew them long before we were born.
Beauty seen and heard, beauty touched.
Where does it come from, this delight, and what can be its function?
Is a knowledge of beauty the gift of God's love that we bring into the world with us?
Is it the secret mirror of our souls? Oh yes, my friends, oh yes!
Let us give heartfelt thanks for beauty, God's reminder of what we really are.

Amen.

Thanks to St Matthew-in-the-City Anglican Church Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand

joe harvey at 5:24 PM

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