God in the End

Another Wainwright ticked on Wednesday: High Rigg, starting at the lovely little church of St John's in the Vale and the diocesan youth centre there . Quite a challenging walk of 4 1/2 miles, though it felt longer - and certainly took longer than I expected, resulting in my failing to get home in time for an appointment!

I have spent some hours this week, with colleagues, on Safeguarding administration. Mainly trying to coordinate everything so we have all the paperwork in one place, and easy reference to see where all our volunteers are at in terms of their DBS checks etc. So grateful to Cath and others for helping with this.

But the big news of the week is the birth of the latest Butland - Jacob Christopher, born to Chris & Debbie yesterday afternoon, just after 4pm.  I love this particular picture, taken within minutes of his birth, which almost looks as if he's praying!

What made this birth stand out from the previous grandchildren is the running commentary we received via WhatsApp from Chris in the delivery room! So we knew exactly what was going on almost minute by minute, with pictures instantaneously. And here is a photo of the family received earlier this morning, when George and Chloe met their new brother.

Tomorrow we reach the end of the road - that is, the book 'We Make the Road by Walking'. It's chapter 52, having begun the book at the start of September last year. We have followed the story of God's salvation from Genesis to Revelation, and discovered that 'In the beginning, God...' (Genesis 1.1) and at the end, God's grace (Revelation 22.21).  Suitably, the Gospel reading is the story of the Two Sons (Luke 15). I'm sure when I was young, it was always 'the Prodigal Son', and the story ended with the feast upon the return of the younger son.  The elder son literally didn't get a look in. Now, however - thanks maybe to the writing of Henri Nouwen (The Return of the Prodigal Son) and the success of the Emmaus course, we realise there is a lot more to it.

Nouwen describes the parable as A Story of Homecoming and writes about his own experience, late in life, of finally knowing the Father's blessing, so that - blessed - he may be a father, able to bless others. For years, he says, he felt like someone on the outside looking in (the older brother) but was able to move inside (coming home), and look out. Pretty much matches what I also have experienced. Someone said to me only recently, he felt I should see myself as a spiritual father to others.

McLaren summarises the journey thus: '...we walk this road, from the known into the unknown, deeper into the mystery, deeper into light, deeper into love, deeper into joy (p320).