Dear Doubters of Great Faith,
It is good to be back among you, my Doubter family, if even only virtually, after some much-needed, much-appreciated time away. The excitement of going away is heightened by knowing that there will always be a joy-filled homecoming, a safe place of landing that is St. Thomas the Apostle!
Holiday during the time of COVID-19 is a strange, perplexing thing for us “do-ers.” The adventure of going and conquering some foreign place and space is fully consumed by the reality of what is, “to be.” And so, this “do-er” had a whole lot of time to just “be!” Alone. With God…
As a forward-thinker, always planning, my thoughts turned to transitions. In Corona-tide, the season that seems endless, the transitions of life continue in spite of the virus. Lent and Easter came and went. The Church’s program year came and went. We already look toward fall, and education opportunities and stewardship programs, and weddings, and funerals, and Advent, and Christmas.
Transitions.
As many of you know, my family lost my father, Seth Blake Thomas, while I was away, a fairly noteworthy transition in my life. My dad was a significant shaper of my world view, a person who influenced how I think and feel and react in and to the world around me. Things like character, and integrity, and work ethic come to mind when I think about him. His transition, while a blessing for him, is and will be a loss to me and to our family. For your continued prayers I am eternally grateful!
And his passing is a signaler that life goes on. Transition feels, in the moment, like an ending. It can seem as though death has won. But we know, in fact, the rest of the story. We know that every single ending is followed by a new beginning. We know that our story has already been written. We know that every Good Friday is always, always followed by an Easter Sunday morning.
So, all these other transitions, all the new beginnings that spring forth from endings, even in the midst of viruses, serve to remind me, and us, that hope resides just about at the level of the horizon, waiting to meet us at the dawn of the new day.
Seth Blake Thomas stepped into that new day. We’re going to step into that new day as well!
Thanks be to God!
Fr. Christopher+
