Reflections on Life’s Journey

Thoughts following All Saints’ Day

How often do people get bound up like mummies in toilet rolls, in the middle of a sermon?

Last Sunday morning, at church, we featured our Pantomime Society, who are busy rehearsing Dick Whittington ready to entertain us in December. After whetting our appetites for their show, two pairs of them volunteered to illustrate our bible reading by competing to make the best mummy, like in the picture (which is a stock image, not mine). It’s not as easy as you think, because just as you cover the mummy’s knees, the roll breaks at one of its joints and the paper unfurls. Looking at the child on the right you can see the problem.

Why do this on All Saints’ Day? We’d read the story of Jesus’ friend Lazarus, who’d died, been bound head to foot in graveclothes,  and been placed in a tomb for 4 days. Jesus shouted into the tomb, “Lazarus, Come Out!” whereupon the dead man somehow stumbled, still all bound up, to the entrance! The story foreshadows what followed soon afterwards – Jesus’ own death, burial and Resurrection. It emphasises that Jesus has power over life and death.

In the afternoon, we returned to church, reached into a basket and chose a brown autumn leaf. Later in our ‘Loved, not Lost’ service, we went to the front, laid down our leaves in memory of a lost relative or friend, and lit a candle, to the strains of Barber’s Adagio. How poignant this felt! Three years ago, on this exact date, I received a phone call to tell me that my dear mum had passed away. Just as this year, the golden autumn leaves were falling to the ground amidst grey cloud and the occasional burst of hazy sunshine. My sisters and I often think of how she’d have enjoyed sharing our news, although we are so glad she didn’t suffer any longer.

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When I began to blog, I’d recently retired, and was healthy, fit and relishing the challenges that non-working life had to offer. Gradually I’m becoming aware the next stage is looming. Increasingly, my calendar’s filled with ‘appointments’, and I regularly patronise various surgeries and clinics. I try to be creative here and, where possible, find attractive cycling routes there and back.

An increasing number of long-term friends have needed hip replacements or have other, major health problems. Medical matters feature more in conversations, including my own boasts, the most serious of which is lumbar spinal stenosis, about which I shall bore you in another episode. An upside of ageing: it’s cheaper to go to the pub ‘cos you can’t drink as much!

Nowadays I attend far more funerals than weddings or Christenings. Not usually of my contemporaries, but it’s getting closer.

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From what I’m observing, old age demands a great deal of courage in order to live it well. This needs another post, but I’m trusting that it’ll be a stage of life where I can prove God faithful just as in my days of vigour.

As I come face to face with my own mortality, it’s encouraging to celebrate the lives of those who’ve gone before. After reading about Lazarus, we sang this hymn composed by the first bishop of Wakefield, William Walsham How,

‘For all the saints who from their labours rest, Who Thee by faith before the world confessed’