Is life not about sharing with friends and strangers?
I HAD the most amazing weekend last weekend. It was frenetic, fun and totally exhausting but it had (almost) all the elements of what is important in life.
The missing element was my children but we managed to catch up on each others’ news by phone if not in person.
In the summer of 2009 I agreed to act as a chaplain on a youth leadership training course for 16-22 year olds in the Boys Brigade.
The course was to last for two years and include two residential weeks with 25 young adults and a team of six leaders at the BB headquarters.
Last weekend marked the end of the course and a graduation for all those who had taken part and completed all the work involved – and the cadets decided that their graduation should be in Dornoch.
The congregation came up trumps and put on a magnificent spread for the young people and their families and friends.
The weather was amazing as the mist rolled away and the sun shone down brightly.
The flower borders leading up to the west door of the Cathedral were the brightest they have ever been and a very special occasion was made even more special still when Dr Monica Main, Lord Lieutenant of Sutherland, agreed to present the certificates.
The recipient closest to home was Calum Fraser of Inverness but there were young people from the Western Isles to the Borders, from the West of Scotland to the North East all of them now firm friends since embarking on the course.
Seeing them all and realising how much they had grown through the course was brilliant but I have to pick out one young man in particular.
He started the training course just after he started a course of chemotherapy. Much of the physical stuff the candidates were asked to do was beyond him but he gave it a go anyway.
Then just two months ago he underwent a major setback and was put on a life support machine and no one knew for certain how things were going to turn out for him.
All of us prayed but I have to say those of us planning the graduation did worry about whether we should go ahead. When this particular young man walked in through the door last Saturday there was a smile on everyone’s face!
On top of that, the course leaders decided they needed to come up on Friday and stay through until Sunday. They needed to go through the practicalities and then have time to unwind afterwards they said.
We got the work done, but we also seemed to eat an awful lot and laugh an awful lot and I even managed to persuade them to take part in the Sunday morning service.
We also had the mother of a young German girl who has been staying with us since August, who came to meet us and chose this busy weekend.
Is that not what life is about? Is life not about sharing with friends and strangers – everything from food, to fun and laughter, to moments of worry and celebration, welcome and worship.
When we can do that at least occasionally, we are (as the young people say) sorted! Blessed indeed!
