The weather here has been just plain wonderful - warm, bright, sunny but just a little sea breeze to stop it getting stifling. The kids are out playing football everywhere, happy dogs chasing after them, and Figgy the cat sits on the warm earth under the Ceanothus bushes, coming in to cool off covered in pollen and smelling of honey.
Dear Betty died today, a peaceful end to her long battle with cancer. Well into her seventies, she was one of the greatest enthusiasts for Vineyard-style worship (so long as it wasn't too loud) and so sure of God's love for her, and for his church. We'll miss her. The whole village will. She's happy now, of that I'm completely certain, no more worries, no more pain. She'll find her towel laid out by the crystal sea, and an end to tears forever.
God's love is stronger even than death. "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose... Who will separate us from the love of Christ? ...For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:28-39)
The sun goes on shining.
I sometimes wonder if our love of the sun, and our corresponding depression when we are deprived of it for long, isn't some kind of premonition of that time when "the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb." (Revelation 21:23). We are made to walk in the light, and our hearts are sick till that day when the light of the world, and of all worlds, will shine for us always, with no clouds, no distorting mirror, no need to shield our eyes - for "then [we] will know fully, even as [we] have been fully known." (1 Corinthians 13:12)
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