April 18 – “On the bright side”

While in the front yard weeding yesterday I received an interesting phone call from the funeral home.  Seems the family I had talked to last Friday had told them I was all set to officiate the funeral of their loved one.  On the bright side, that was a true statement.  On the dimmer side, what they failed to notify me about was … the funeral was to be today at 10 a.m.  Well, OK.  As it turns out, on the bright side, that was not a problem for my schedule.  Oh, and also on the bright side, Chris stained the new back door with the color created magically by the Harry Potter-ish guy at Sherwin-Williams.  It is pretty much a perfect match.  On the dimmer side, she still has to seal it, but she can’t do that until the weather dries out again.

Meanwhile, I was talking to the Lord (and to the female blackbirds that inevitably come to visit when I do yardwork).  I had a revelation, or at least an idea of sorts, for a different approach to the object lesson for the sunrise service.  That idea was circulating in my mind when Chris got home from her haircut.  Oops.  That’s when I realized I was supposed to have already gone to Office Depot to pick up the sunrise service booklets and to Randall’s to get a prescription and some fruit.  My total absorption in the task at hand, mixed with the mental pondering pushed all other considerations out of my wheelhouse.  On the bright side, I was almost finished with the weeding.  On the dimmer side, we still had to go get those booklets.  And the prescription and fruit.  On the bright side, now we could do the errand-running together. 

On the bright side, we did finish the errands, all before we had to pick Cailyn up from school.  And on another bright side, we stopped in to see Nathan at the fire station on our way home.  Always great to see Cailyn run full-speed into his arms.  There’s just something special about that kind of love.

Once we got back home I finished up writing the funeral service and dove into incorporating the new idea into the sunrise service object lesson.  On the bright side, the idea fit really well with what I had already written.  It feels a little more coherent to me now.  On the dimmer side, that meant I had to re-orient my pastor’s copy of the service booklet to include the changes.  Not as fun a task, but one I was up for.  So on the bright side, it only took a few deletions and a paragraph or two of smaller font size to bring it into submission.  I think it’s ready to go now.  

And on the bright side (for you, at least), I’m done for today …

Luke 22:19 says, “And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’”

Father, thank you for all the “bright sides” you grace us with every day.  Help us become more proficient at recognizing them.  Amen.