Shepherd guiding us to the future

Today I attended the funeral of a well liked lady from church, it was a sad occassion, but comforting in seeing the wealth of support from the people who turned out. From her family and also from church. I was pleased to be able to get some time off work and go along, and I was also able to pick up Margorie from the nursing home. She was really pleased to be able to attend. The service was lead by inderjit Bhogul, who some may remember as president of the methodist conference or speaker for christian aid. He once was the minister at the cv and became good family friends with Edith and her family. The ceremony was conducted in a real sense of peace and I felt comforted by that amongst the sadness. Using Psalm 23 Inderjit spoke of Palestinian shepherds of the time constantly moving the flock to pastures new, in a sense leading the flock to the future from a place of death to a place of life. Sharing how through Jesus not even death can separate us from the love and presene of God. In true crookes valley fashion there had to be something in the service that was a bit different: Edith's grand daughter had prepared a series of photo collages that adorned the casket and as Inderjit finished the commital he pressed the automatic curtain closing button when natalie called out to Inderjit that she wanted the photos. Well he tried to stop the curtains by pressing the button again, but to no avail, so as the curtains slowly closed Inderjit nipped in and out collecting the photos and rescuing them from the furnace. It made me smile, and I knew Edith would've done too.