Ripples

I attended a funeral today. I had never met the man who died.  He was the brother of a friend.  Many people were there.  It was standing room only. Some of those people I knew; most I did not. 

The service began with the ancient hymn, Be Thou My Vision.  Knowing that it is a very old hymn, I looked up the history.  I learned that the words were written as a poem in the 6th century and the melody was written in Ireland in the 8th.  I wondered how many people over the centuries have been both inspired and comforted by that hymn.  The chapel where I sat was fairly modern, but during that sacred song, I was transported to some aged cathedral surrounded by all the saints whose lives have been touched by that melody and those words.  The poet who penned the words and the musician who set out the notes had no idea how in the 21st century the ripples of their lives would be felt and appreciated by a lone woman sitting at the funeral service of man she never met.

Awaiting the start of the service, I sat engrossed in my own disjointed thoughts.  A couple sat beside me.  They knew the people in front of them.  They spoke of the deceased and his family.  After a few moments, the wife touched my arm and asked me how I was doing.  I told her, "fine."  I found her question to be amazingly kind.  She asked how I knew the man who had died.  I explained that I did not know him, but that I go to church with his sister, a woman I greatly admire.  This lovely woman explained that her son and his family also go to our church.  She gave me their names.  I exclaimed how I love her son and his wife and children.  I also explained that I grew up in the church with her husband.  I should have recognized him.  She asked my name; whispered it to him.  He remembered my family.  I remember his well.  It also dawned on me that a year or so ago, I was praying fervently for this woman, the mother of a friend, a woman I had not met until this day.  I asked how she was doing.  "Really well," she replied.   I felt little ripples from that church family of my childhood and ripples going out from my present church family. 

This man who had died, that I never met, was an amazing person.   He was a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a grandfather, an uncle, a friend.   He will be remembered by those who knew him as a servant who cooked for many, and often wrote notes of encouragement to those who both grieved and rejoiced.  Today, the unanswered questions as to why, in this modern world, there were no adequate medicines to heal him haunt his family.  There are unanswered questions as to why God did not see fit to intervene.  But, I sat in that chapel, at the funeral of a man I never met, and felt the ripples of his life lapping against me.  I left that place feeling as though I knew him, and inspired, by his life, to live a better one myself. 

So, for today, I wish you gentle, healing ripples from the lives of those around you and gentle, healing ripples sent from you for those who cross your path, and I wish you

blessings