After completing teaching for another semester on Thursday, I entered a weekend of considerable diversity. Friday morning I led the funeral of Jeanette Berman, aged 97, a lifelong church member who died very suddenly. She remembered as a young child riding to church in the winter on a sleigh!
From there I went to Calvin Seminary where I spoke on “Puritan Preparatory Grace” for the Graduate Historical Colloquium. Rev. Paul Smalley assisted me with the Q&A session that followed. (Some of those that lingered for fellowship are shown in the attached photograph.)
Fellowship after the Colloquium at Calvin Seminary
Then there was a hospital visit to see the new baby of one of our theological students. On Saturday, I officiated the wedding of Matthew Glutting and Kimberly Westrate (Kim is both a member of our church and an employee of PRTS).
Sunday I preached on Revelation 7 and administered our church’s quarterly Lord’s Supper—always a special day. But this time it was a bit nostalgic because I last preached on this text for my father’s funeral nearly twenty years ago, and it was also my 60th birthday and 26th anniversary as a pastor in our church.
Today, my wife and I hosted a farewell dinner for the PRTS students that are leaving us in the next few weeks after the completion of this semester to minister in their home countries. They hail from Brazil, Korea, Malawi, and South Africa.
Dinner with Departing PRTS International Families
Such is life: birth, marriage, birthday, anniversary, Lord’s Supper, lecturing, death, burial, farewell—in one weekend. Solomon was right: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to…” (Eccl. 3:1–2).
Are you prepared for life’s diversity—especially for its end?
