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Shooting shooters carooming off impatient players.  Two smiles around a kitchen table.  Both the sights and sounds of yesterday.

Our daughter arrived with our grandson around 3:00 in the afternoon.  Christopher is a true delight, bringing his smile and the light of is play into our abode.  His uncle, Tim, just hangs around and enjoys him!

Later in the evening we had 16 youth and  young adults around tables trying to learn the game of crokinole.  You see, we have challenged our seniors to a tournament the end of March.  Usually that is no problem except for one slight thing!  Some of them have never played crokinole.  So, this was the evening to give it a try.  They all did well — and were very kind in explaining that the seniors didn’t stand a chance!  (OK, so they were a little more direct in their speech, but we’ll leave it at the fact that they figure the tournament is theirs!!)

I’ve been working on a Lenten series of sermons. 

Some of you may ask — what’s that?  Well, usually about six weeks before Easter the lenten season starts.  For those in the church Lent is the time to prepare for the event that intersects history with untold consequences.

Unfortunately Lent has gotten a bad rap, bad press and generally is disliked.  You see, most people think of it as a time to give up something.  So some give up chocolate, some smoking, some coffee.  Sort of give up something that is bad for you.  Give up something without a reason, just do it because it is expected.

And that’s where the depth of Lent needs to be explored once again.  I’m going to talk about “living forward”.  The season is more about looking to the good news of Jesus for the world.  If all we think of is how bad it is to give up something bad, we’ve missed it!!

But, if we think of living forward into the future, of moving forward from where we are at right now, of forwarding our fears onto God, of becoming forward in telling others about Jesus, of being forward thinking . . . perhaps we will be excited about what we can leave behind, what we can forsake, what we can give up.

That’s the start.  I can hardly wait to see what evolves from here!

Last night we held our annual meeting.

This morning I awoke, convinced that this is the start of a new beginning! 

How that revitalizes your whole self.  When we can look to the future (since the past is gone!) we get a true look at our present.  With Jesus, there is a blanket of protection from the past, a present excitement and a future hope.

Good stuff to start, and to end a day!!

A phrase from my youth just popped through my head.  As a youth, the lyric line was just a nice phrase from a nice song at a nice time of life.

Now that I’m older, I wonder if we can actually put time in a bottle.  What would that be like?

As if we could capture an activity, a feeling, an thought — then pack it, roll it and stuff it.  Deep into the bottle.  Cork the bottle with a self-sealing stopper.  Then place the bottle in the sea of our lives.

One day the bottle arrives on the shore.  Sometimes the arrival is prompted by the swirling of thoughts and smells and emotions and people that surround us.  Other days, stooping at the shore, the bottle just arrives.  Unannounced and unplanned.

We uncork the bottle and peer inside.  A flood pours out.  Perhaps tears, sometimes anger, often nostalgia.  When we try to recork the bottle, we’re never sure the resealing happens. 

Another year we see the bottle again — only this time, as we open the bottle, the emotional level is lessened.  Or we fear to open the bottle — our previous experience with the bottle inclines us to let it float back out to sea.

I wonder, if we can actually put time in a bottle, what time would it be?