Articles
Taking Our Place
What do these current and former Centreville members have in common? (There follows a list of 24 specific people). To the best of my recollection (apologies for inadvertent omissions), these have all lost a parent in the past ten or so years.
For a congregation our size, that strikes me as a large number. While the demographic reasons may be interesting, the real point is that this is the natural order of things. Each generation, so vibrant and active in its own era, eventually passes from the scene and children struggle to accept the new reality.
When Jacob was “gathered to his people,” Joseph “fell on his father’s face and wept over him, and kissed him” (Gen 50:1). There ensued forty days of embalming and thirty additional days of national mourning (Gen 50:3). This was followed by “a very great gathering” of Israel and Egyptians in the land of Canaan for Jacob’s burial and another week of mourning (Gen 50:7-10).
At some point, it gradually dawns on each individual that I am now part of the adult generation. Not merely an adult but a leader, one that appears “old” to the younger, collectively the generation of the experienced, responsible ones who constitute a societal framework that makes everything run. And it is a generation taken for granted by so many – until they are gone. Are you preparing for this kind of adulthood? If already of age, are you shouldering the duty willingly and wisely?
