I awoke at the dawning of another mild and sunny day, and over the course of the morning a flow of birthday greetings from family, and church members here in Ibiza. This included phone calls from both my sisters, Pauline (91) and June (85). Most amazing of all was a fifteen minute YouTube video compilation of photos, music, songs performed and birthday greetings from Arizona, Bristol, Kenilworth and Cardiff, masterminded by Kath's technical mastery of current digital media. What a delight it was, such laughter, such affection, I was close to tears, realising how much effort and co-operation this had called for, just for me!
To my amazement, after lunch, churchwarden Jayne arrived with an amazing surprise birthday cake for me, which she'd baked according to a vegan recipe given her by Sarah. That one took me three weeks to finish, savouring a small slice at a time, as it was so rich. This one's bigger, and tastes just as good. What at lucky man I am!
Thinking of tonight's Paschal Vigil, for which the world church cannot gather tonight, I recorded the blessing of the light of the Paschal Candle to send to Dave for uploading with the text to the website before I started lunch. Sharing good moments of these holy days is for me one good thing I can do.
At seven, Kath organised a family party using Zoom,, linking family members together. What a lovely hour we spent together! Zoom admin decided not to cut us off after the set 40 mins, so we had that much longer to laugh and joke, and enjoy being family. It's when the dark shadow of death hangs over one's life that valuing God's most precious human treasure comes right back into focus.
By this time it was getting too dark to do my 10k for the day, and I failed to complete for the first time since I came here with time on my hands. I also failed to do my Duo Lingo daily language drill, something which happens perhaps two or three times a year. (I need the structure in my life!), but never mind. Then I had to knuckle down and concentrate on producing tomorrow's worship and sermon. No writer's block, but I was so full of ideas that editing them all down to a sensible length before bed defeated me.
Struggling to get audio editing done, abandoned myself to bed at a unsocial hour. As I worked, I imagined numinous Easter Vigils, Orthodox, Latin, Anglican, Taize - all part of past fifty five years of adult discipleship. They mean so much to me. This year, the world and not just the church is in such unfamiliar territory, but the story we tell in such a different situation remains unchanged. We're the ones who'll be changed.
Christ, yesterday, today and forever.
All time belongs to him and all eternity
To Him be praise and glory forever.
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