Days of Auld Lang Syne

In the early hours of the new year, I found myself reading about a song I kinda know and you kinda know but until today, I had never fully heard the words. It reminded me of being a sixteen year old girl who was a lector in the church I grew up in and not being able to hear or understand the words I was reading. The song is Auld Lang Syne. Did you sing it or hear others singing it last night? Or perhaps you know all the words and you actually know what you are singing.

I was at a party last night and we raised a glass to ring in the new year (a non-alcoholic one for me) and then a few people sang the song and I listened. My ears were opened today as I read this article from yesterday's Wall Street Journal by Peggy Noonan. In essence the song says, Remember the people who have touched your lives, those you have met along the pilgrim highway. Often, I have wanted to write about those people who have touched my life and highlight how they have affected me but often it is far too personal to be specific. Let's just say that the blessings of friends and family have far outweighed the wounds that I have received in this life.

Happy New Year to all that I have encountered upon this journey in 2010. At the risk of offending some, I will list these dear people and if you ought to be included here please comment and remind me of our meeting on the road of life this past year.

Dan, Grace, Katie and Michael Mullaney: my immediate family.

Billy and Kelly Mullaney, Barry and Mary Mullaney, Bill Mullaney (dad), Jimbo and Karen Mullaney, Ellen and Paul Lippens, Shosh and Paul Babson, Smully, Paul A. MacDonald, Peter and Tammie MacDonald, Laura MacDonald, Paul and Joan MacDonald (dad and mum): our extended families.

Now I will got back in hopes that none will be forgot:

Becky and Cliff Mort, Mike and Kim Abendroth, Nancy Myers, Dave and Vida Farrar, Marie Steinmann, Fran Walken, Flo Paras, Marie and Tom Bertrand, Charlie and Elaine Crane, Cindy and Scott Farrar, Steve and Janet Cooley, Deb and Dana Peterson, Bruce and Lori Pelissier, David MacAdam, Joanne and Glenn Gray, Steve and Carol Gray, Elizabeth Kehoe, BonnieJean Wiebe, Kristen Neprud, Devan Wiebe, Diane and Clark Pitchford, Pam and Kenny Hopkins, Kelly and Phil Bower, Eunice and Au Au, Dina Webb, Cathy Creed, Misun Min, Helen Kim, Mary and Jeff Weix, Little Joe, Joe the Builder, Howard, Marilyn, Marcia, Charlie, John, John, Lorraine, Mr. Norton (Karen Mullaney's dad) Uncle Bill, Lorraine, Cousin Anna, Eileen, Elena, all the old men regulars at Endicott Variety, Sharon Scanell, Gail and John Lefferts (There are more I am sure but it has been a crazy 24 hours).

Again, I am reminded that people matter. It is in the context of human relationships that we continue to become who we are because we have been a part of one another's lives in big and small ways.

A new day and a new year is an opportunity for renewed hope.

"The very stones would cry out."

The mystery of the love and sorrow found at the Cross may be found in the shadow of our Lord's magnificent entry into the city. Jesus was being hailed as the King, homage was being paid and the Pharisees were ticked off. There was however no stopping what was taking place. If Jesus' followers kept silent he told the Pharisees then the rocks would cry out.

In my life, I have had seasons of carrying a rock or rocks in my pocket to remind me that if I don't praise my Lord, the rocks would. Do I believe that the very rocks in my pocket would cry out?

Do I believe that Jesus was bodily resurrected from the dead?

Do I believe He is fully man and fully God?

Is there power in the blood?

What is belief?

Who holds the Key?

Did Almighty God make the first move? (or did we)

This is not what I expected this post to be, but when I reflect on the Passion during this Week of Remembrance, it makes me scratch my head. I am full of questions because the LIFE and Death of Jesus Christ....the Resurrection is a mystery.

The best way to describe my faith may seem weak and feeble to some but it is truthful and to no surprise they are words taken from the Bible, written by the Apostle Paul from his 1st letter to the Corinthians:

"we see in a mirror dimly"

When will I/we see and know fully as we are fully known? The 13th chapter indicates that it will be upon His Return, when Jesus Christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords returns with power and might. His first coming was in humility, His Second coming will be nothing like the first.

The Lord Jesus made loving appearances once he was resurrected. Not as a ghost but as the man that He was only made new baring the scars of His brutal death. Jesus cooked and dined with His Beloved. The Beloved were bold over by His Great Love for them:

Mary, a woman, a sinner forgiven was the first one recorded to have met the Risen Lord and upon hearing Him call her by her own name, she knew in an instant that it was her "Master" and Jesus gave her the task of bringing the Good News to his disciples.

Peter ran like the wind to get to the empty tomb. Later, Jesus made him breakfast and restored Peter as he had him affirm three times, that he did indeed love His Lord.

The two who were on the road to Emmaus, walking and talking with the One First Born from the Dead and not realizing it until He supped with them and broke the bread. Before taking off to find the eleven they said to one another: "did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us...?" There is something in a heart to heart conversation that knits those hearts together.

When I think of power and might, it makes me think of war. Will Jesus come as a great warrior?

But what about the greatest of these things, Love?

What will the Greatest Thing in the World look like? We can dream, we can imagine, but that brings us back to the beginning of this post and that is mystery.....

In the book of proverbs chapter 30, there is something of a clue

¹⁸ Three things are too wonderful for me;

four I do not understand:

¹⁹the way of an eagle in the sky,

the way of a serpent on a rock,

the way of a ship on the high seas,

and the way of a man with a virgin.

Are not these things full of mystery?

Here is another: When you discover a friend, that you didn't ever expect to be your friend are you not delighted in this new friendship? Can you explain it?

What will Love look like through the lens of Power and Might? A Glory beyond our imaginations?

I contend that He bids us to try.....use the imagination He has given you and me. Paint a painting, run a race, write a song, fight a battle, touch the skin of a new born baby, hold the hand of a new widow, craft the story.

Colossians 1

¹⁵He is the image of the invisible God,the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. ¹⁹For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

²¹ And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, ²²he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, ²³ if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Praising my God less the rocks cry out!