LineaLanoie's Weblog

Tonight was the last night that our prayer stations will be up in the sanctuary.  It’s been a busy week and today was no exception.  The day started off early with a Sunrise service on the river bank in front of our house.  You can see a picture of our little gathering on Randall’s site taken as the sun rose above the trees over the river. 

Then everyone came in to our house for good strong coffee or tea and of course hot cross buns.  I’m sure there must be a good reason why these particular buns are a traditional Easter treat but I can’t for the life of me remember why.

It was good to have a house full of friends this morning. 

Then I had guests to get lunch ready for.  This year I decided to skip some of our more traditional Easter fare for some really good bison steaks.  My kids had scrubbed the potatoes the night before so there was very little hard work getting the meal together.  We were thirteen for dinner but everyone brought something so we had more than enough.  Eric made a couple of delicious pies that he had made – mango and pumpkin.  He impressed his little sisters.

Everyone left fairly early this afternoon, leaving me with time to go for a walk along the river bank.  Spring is slowly but surely on it’s way.  The pussy willows are out. 

and there are more and more birds.  Geese and ducks and I believe I saw a robin. 

This afternoon as I walked, I could hear the ice breaking up. You only notice the power of the moving water when the ice meets an obstacle and it starts to pile up in heaps.  Otherwise the water carries the ice along silently.  It all looks so peaceful and then all hell breaks loose as it encounters an obstacle that tries to impeded it’s movement.  Slabs of ice pile up with loud crashes as the slabs are impaled on each other and piled ever higher until a small mountain is formed in the middle of the river.  There must be a sandbank there that has stopped the ice’s movement.

A huge slab of ice crashes it way past this obstacle.  As it does, the side is sheared off and then the narrowed slab makes it’s way past and moves on with the force of the water till the next obstacle in met. 

It was good for me to get out into the world that lies around me again.  The walking path along the river is clear of ice and easier to negotiate than it was a couple of weeks ago.  I seem to need this contact with the outdoors.  I find it an easy place to talk to God – he’s just so much all around me and everywhere I am reminded of his power.  At the same time I am so aware that I am a creature he loves. 

But at the end of my walk I also made my way back to our prayer stations in our church sanctuary.  I spent some time there just kind of wrapping things up, I guess.  I was all alone, so I sat and looked out into the space where the people sit – my friends.  And as I thought about where they had been sitting this morning, or missing from their usual spots, I was reminded of things they are praying about and things I needed to pray about them.  And then there is this larger world out there past the walls of our church – so I just kept on going for awhile.  It was good and I will regret tomorrow when I will have to go and take things down. 

Good Friday interdenominational service this morning.  I guess there were 7 or so churches of the “evangelical” sort that participated.  It was a good service.  It is different worshiping with churches that do things in slightly different ways than we do. 

Our worship team led the music.  That was a bit scary – different sanctuary, different and much more sophisticated sound equipment, different keyboard – Janet having to stand and sing and lead us.  She had the hardest job of the worship team.  And I didn’t mess up too many times – mostly just little bits. 

It was also gratifying to have people thank us afterwards for the music and for the choice of songs.  So Janet you led us well. 

But I miss the more intimate fellowship we have in our own church.  Maybe that is not how one is supposed to feel but there it is anyway – how I feel.  I guess it is partly the friends and the style of worship, the songs we are familiar with, our own particular “non-liturgical” sort of rituals that make our church feel like home.  And I think we are very blessed to have a pastor who is not afraid to shepherd us along towards a deeper faith in God, pointing us(or trying to) in the direction that God shows to him, challenging us and feeding us and just being an example.  I think he loves us, like a reflection of God’s love that we can see, and he’s helping us to learn to love each other.  Maybe that is why it feels like home.

Tonight we gathered for worship and to share in communion.  It was Maundy Thursday — Holy Thursday.  We have a little tradition now of two years duration.  This is the night we gather around God’s table and serve each other. 

When I got home from work tonight, my daughters asked if this was the night we would be serving each other communion so I guess it was a significant enough event for them last year that they remembered it and wanted to do it again.  They wanted to go tonight – absolutely no arm twisting needed. It is interesting how my teenagers will attend and participate in an event like this but do not like going to Youth Group events.

Tonight I thought there were some very significant things going on.  Children were serving each other, their parents and their youth leaders.  I was moved as an adult daughter served her parents and siblings.  Because I know her and we have shared stories, I am a little aware of just how significant this act was.

I was also just aware of God’s presence uniting this diverse group of people somehow by the simple act of serving one another. 

And following this, I took my daughters out for something to eat.  It was fun and we had a chance to talk again about some important things together.  We talked about God answering our prayers and how sometimes it seems like he answers right away and other times it seems to take a long time.   So I read them a bit of a quote from Anne Lamott in Bird By Bird where she says “Still one of the most annoying things about God is that he never just touches you with his majic wand, like Glinda the Good, and gives you what you want…”  It gave us a good chance to talk and those are always good times.