The coming of a storm

We walked down to the beach as the Tropical Storm is getting closer and the waves are churning. The tides will be higher than usual and the over wash at parts of the Outer Banks threatens to make driving difficult.
 



I was  called down last night to the Hospital to be with the family of a visitor who died yesterday. They had been focused in on packing up in order to avoid the storm but the grandmother was feeling bad. Thursday had been a wonderful day as Grandmother had held the grandchildren on the beach and declared it had been one of the best days of her life. Later that night the symptoms came back and they debated calling the ambulance because a hospital stay might delay the 500+ mile trip home north getting the family out before the storm hit, but they did.  Grandmother did not want to go to the hospital - she had been in poor health for a long time and she died in the emergency room and the call went out to the chaplain to help the family.

I listened and we prayed. How wonderful to die after one of the best days in your life and to be remembered as laughing. Life is so fleeting and walking down to the beach I was struck again that today is the only day we have. Death is not the worst thing that can happen to us.

Today is the Lesser Feast for William Temple, Arch-Bishop of Canterbury who died on this date in 1944. The quote that I repeat from him often: "Man alone is born crying, lives complaining,and dies disappointed." This woman who died was not alone and knew she was loved by family and God. Another Temple quote: "When all is done, human life is, at the greatest and the best, but like a forward child, that must be played with and humoured a little to keep it quiet till it falls asleep, and then the care is over."

The Collect (Prayer) for his day is "O God, who by your Holy Spirit give to some the word of wisdom, to others the word of knowledge, and to others the word of faith: We praise your Name for the gifts of grace manifested in your servant William Temple, and we pray that your Church may never be destitute of such gifts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."

James Keifer relates a story about Temple:

" In 1931, at the end of the Oxford Mission (what is known in many Protestant circles as a Revival Meeting), he led a congregation in the University Church, St Mary the Virgin, in the singing of the hymn, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." Just before the last stanza, he stopped them and asked them to read the words to themselves. "Now," he said, if you mean them with all your heart, sing them as loud as you can. If you don't mean them at all, keep silent. If you mean them even a little and want to mean them more, sing them very softly." The organ played, and two thousand voices whispered:
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.


For many who participated, it was a never-forgotten experience."

Today with a storm coming -- and when is a storm not coming- we sing in a whisper:
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.