highs and lows

In the past few days I have been honored to officiate a wedding of a friend and help lay to rest someone I had never had the chance to meet.

A wedding is a day of celebration, of love, of happiness and it is a high point in a person's life.  A funeral is a day of mourning, of loss, of grief and can be a low point for many.

I was able to experience in both of these things only a few days apart and the juxtaposition was extreme.  Highs and lows in the same week.  Loss and life in the same week.  

Jesus, of course, experienced both of these things too.  He attended the wedding at Cana to celebrate love and he wept at the tomb with Mary and Martha when Lazarus died.  These are human emotions.  Love, loss, joy, grief.  These are part of what make us human. 
 
As we go through the ups and downs of life I am glad we do it together, in community.  I saw at the funeral members of our church there to support the family and I know that kind of love is comforting during a loss.  

Romans 8:39 in the Message says "high or low, thinkable or unthinkable-absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love."

May you remember that God is always with you; in the highs and the lows.
 

In Christ,
Pastor Scott