29th September
It was great to be back in Oxford. The compensation of travel is that I can get to see our children as I journey round Britain. Recent wanderings have enabled me to stay a couple of nights with Jess and Nick and grandson Gabriel. The added delight of being with them for his first birthday was a great bonus and to hear his ‘Gandag’ was a blessing that he bestowed upon me as he crawled towards my bed in the not too early morning.
Birthdays are important. I am mindful of Henri Nouwen’s thoughts on such occasions which helped me to appreciate the heightened significance of such days.
Birthdays need to be celebrated. I think it is more important to celebrate a birthday than a successful exam, a promotion or a victory. Because to celebrate a birthday means to say to someone ‘thank you for being you’. Celebrating a birthday is exalting life and being glad for it. On a birthday we do not say ‘thanks for what you did or said or accomplished’ no, we say ‘thank you for being born and being among us’.
On birthdays we celebrate the present.
We do not complain about what happened or speculate about what will happen but we lift someone up and let everyone say ‘we love you’. Celebrating a birthday reminds us of the goodness of life and in this spirit we really need to celebrate people’s birthdays every day by showing gratitude, kindness, forgiveness, gentleness and affection.
These are ways of saying ‘it’s good that you are alive’;
‘it’s good that you are walking with me on this earth’,
let’s be glad and rejoice.
This is the day that God has made for us to be and to be together.’
Henri Nouwen
I would spend the latter half of his birthday journeying up to Swanwick to lead a Ministers Conference that they have asked me to create a retreat with. No mean feat with many ministers in what is essentially a Conference Centre but I will certainly give it a go. The need to create space and time for reflection in the midst of ministry is great. I pray that the prospect for the next 48 hours retreat will be brighter than the dark, miserable, wet weather that I am currently driving through on a grey autumnal day driving along the motorway.
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