Beginnings and Endings Friday Five

Sally writes: This Celtic Mandala represents life, noting how days and years turn from one to another. As we have stepped from 2008 into 2009 some of us look back with joy and others with sadness; probably most of us with a mixture of the two.

As we look back we may come to understand how God has worked in and through us in joy and sadness. how we have grown against what may seem impossible odds. As we look forward we may do so with expectation, and we may do so with fear and trembling. As we look back and forward in New Years liminality I offer you this simple yet I hope profound Friday Five in two parts:

First list five things that you remember/ treasure from 2008 (not in any specific order)
1. The birth of Cindy, our second grandchild
2. The Rev Gals BE 1.0 that joined me to this community of Christ in a deeper way
3. The trip that Game Boy and I got to take with Meemah to Colorado in June
4. The opportunity to witness our sons really come into their own in high school this year
5. The opportunity to see "our German daughter" Nora again in August 2008


Then list five things that you are looking forward to in 2009
1. The opportunity to see our grandchildren (and their parents :p ) two weeks from today
2. The opportunity to welcome Nora back for a two-month stay this summer as she completes a clinical rotation
3. Witnessing Music Man graduate from high school and get established in college (this one is bittersweet)
3. The opportunity to see a vision that God has given for our congregation and community come to fruition
4. Our congregation calling a colleague in ministry

As we read one another's blogs today Sally invites us to leave a word of encouragement and to pause to pray for each member of Revgals as we step into a New Year. And she offers this New Year Blessing from the Iona Community:

We stand to face the future:
God behind us in the past
Christ before us; the way ahead;
Christ beside us in this moment;
Christ beneath us in our weakness;
Christ above to shield us-
beneath the shadow of his wings we are safe;
Christ between us to bind us in the unity of his love;
Christ in us equipping us with his all sufficient grace.
Thus armed and guided, and protected we face the new year.
Now we arise and go forth on the journey before us,
knowing that, where Christ leads, life is a journey home.
Therefore we travel in faith, in hope, and in love,
in the name of the Father/ Mother, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
May the blessing of God
be upon us
all this year
and into eternity. Amen.