The Bookends of Life

It’s not often you get to see the bookends of life, either the beginning or the end, so to see them both in one day is quite amazing. I sat, or stood is more like it, at the doctor’s office and watched with excitement yet another ultrasound of my son who is now 24 weeks and 4 days old, but who’s counting. He has gone from looking like an alien, to looking like a young cyborg from the movie Terminator, to now looking a little bit like a monkey. A very cute monkey, I might add. Seeing life at such an early stage is a little overwhelming, at times beyond comprehension. Our little guy is growing at a good rate and all of Megan’s numbers are looking great. Now we wait some more. She is feeling him move around a ton and I, for the first time, actually felt him kick the other night. I’ve only felt it once, so either I am the ‘Baby Whisperer’ and have a truly calming influence or my son is already a momma’s boy and I don’t stand a chance. Either way, we’re pretty excited.

If that wasn’t enough for one day, this same day I experienced a rare blessing of getting to spend the final few hours of life with a beautiful ninety-one year-old woman. It is one of those aspects of this calling that you really can’t explain. Death is something that really freaks people out, but as a pastor, specifically one to a mostly older congregation, death is a fact of life. I really have come to see that being allowed into these sacred final few moments of life as an honor and a blessing. After several hours spent during the day calming her restless spirit, the phone rang late in the evening with the news. “She’s climbed that final hill.” And she has finished her race, a long race, run very well. A life-long educator, she taught her final lesson today, as I learned yet again how beautiful life and death can truly be. Thanks be to God for both!