MAKING THINGS 'NEW'

   Last week, we went to the  wedding of an old friend, or rather, a 'long time friend'.  He's no 'spring chicken' but hardly 'old' in the eyes of gerontologists. . . More like on the high side of middle age.
(Adhering to my mother's admonition never to ask a lady's age, I did not inquire of the bride as to her number of birthdays.)  He has known a number of the 'tough licks' that life can render.  And, she has, likewise, experienced some difficult times.

   Theirs was a wedding within the context of a Christian worship service, complete with sermon and Eucharist...an altogether moving experience.  In his sermon, the Presiding Minister noted that  both of them had had their difficult places along the way.  He further cited Yahweh's promise to make 'all things new',  despite the broken places of life. (He humorously noted that the promise was not to make things 'young' again, despite our culture's desperate longing for that.)  And, 'broken places' abound; hardly just within marriage.

     It is an often-quoted cliche that we  'have only one life to live'.
From that the inference can be drawn, I suppose, of a kind of fatalism that says 'there is nothing new under the sun'. . .what happened yesterday has  happened again today and will repeat on the morrow.  Then the cumulative tasks, "mess up's", missed opportunities, and regrets will eventually crush out all hope and vitality and 'Resignation' is the best that can be expected.

   While there are many 'constants' that help provide some sense of stability, nonetheless 'life' for many persons is a kind of series of new beginnings.  In my seventies, I have different perspectives on many topics that vary greatly from how I understood matters in my twenties, thirties, etc.  For example, the days of the 'gold watch' after forty years service in the same job are pretty much over.  Still, this is a somewhat different matter than just "Age appropriate Passages".  Dislocations, losses, hurts, wounds ...these and other 'bad things' can and do occur all across the chronological spectrum.
In the face of such profound pain, it was a good thing to hear again the assertion, "Look, I am making a new thing."  And, maybe as the Preacher said, "It takes a wedding" to remind us of that rebirth.

    Satchel