For a few months, Cathy and I planned on flying to Chicago's Midway Airport then driving to see our brand new granddaughter. As a part of this weekend's festivities, we would bear witness to her baptism followed by a joyful family gathering at our daughter and son-in-law's home.
As life would have it, we learned that a family friend was battling cancer. "The Big C," as many call it. She was initially diagnosed and told the cancer would not be problematic, but alas, she would soon be overcome by the deadly disease. It finally consumed her just before our trip to Chicago. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your perspective, our friend was from and lived in the Chi-town area. Our weekend took on several new meanings as a result...
Friday evening we would attend her wake. For my non-southern and non-Catholic friends, that's the viewing where family and friends go to pay their final respects. Saturday would be the day of the funeral, and finally, Sunday would be Maya's baptismal and subsequent celebration.
Everything went according to plan (except our delayed flight back to Atlanta, which, if you follow any of my posts about my own air travel you know delays are built into my traveling plans) and we found ourselves on a flight Sunday night heading home. Like a lot of people, I tend to look at life events in buckets: we live, we die and everything in between is a bonus. Except, this time, as we flew the hour and a half flight home, I had time to ponder what just happened the previous three days.
What we bore witness to was, what Walt Disney productions and the Lion King referred to as The Circle of Life. Right before our eyes, we saw the dead, and all around us we saw the dying (we, as a whole are living and dying in the same moment), and we witnessed what Christians see as a spiritual rebirth. This all happened in the span of three short days!
Oftentimes, we hear people saying things like "dust to dust," or you have "come full circle." Mostly, I look at euphemisms as trite and colloquial. This, however, was the epitome of full circle! The death of the elderly and the renewal of the young. And somewhere in between was/are the rest of us.
So, while we mourn the loss of a friend, and celebrate new life, it wasn't lost on me the inconceivable odds that I would live to see all of it transpire over a seventy-two hour period. I would like to point out that I don't believe in coincidence or luck, good or bad. In my mind, there are missed and taken opportunities. In this case though, I can't fathom the opportunity missed or taken that would have me in the same place for both the end and the beginning of life.
Thus it is, that I think we, Cathy, Abby, and I, were brought into that weekend for a specific reason. Perhaps it was to do exactly what I've outlined here: bear witness to both events. On a grander scale it is possible that we were brought together on that particular weekend to see and share life's tragedies and triumphs. Finally, it is plausible that God himself put us in that time and place to see the Alpha and Omega and share the fragility of life with anyone willing to listen.
I don't pretend to know the answer to any of this, but I suspect there is something bigger than any of us at play. There is, as I stated, a beginning and an end, and all the stuff in between. The crème inside the Oreo, or books inside the bookends is how I see it. How we live and what we do with that stuff is up to us, but know that we all have faced a beginning, and all walk around decaying until our final moment. What we do and how treat one another is what matters, and how we perceive the unlikeliest of events will help guide us.
Live well!
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