09Sep07 - Jemima's Christening

We had plenty of time this morning for a change. Dawn got up with Lucy so I got a rare lie in until about 9:00. We went to the christening of one of Lucy's friends from the child development centre which was at 12:00pm. The church was quite a forward thinking, modern setup with good music, lots of young faces and a scrolling slide show as a welcome. I quite liked it for a change from the usual Church of England dourness. Lucy attracted the normal unwanted attention but Dawn kept me from getting too mad about it. She always says to me, "Stop trying to educate the world one person at a time!" and she is probably right. It just makes me feel better when I know that they know that they have been caught at it. I must do those cards to hand out. I have to admit to being touched by the service though. As part of the sermon/speach/presentation (they call the sermon all sorts these days) they played a short film. The film was a story about a man going out for a walk around a lake with his 18 month old son, who he carried on his back with a kind of ruck sack. The walk starts well, its a beautiful sunny day strolling through the woods but at the half way point, as far from home as they could be, it begins to rain. The rain gradually falls harder and harder until they are walking unprotected through a torrential thunder storm. The child is now scared, wet and screaming, unable to protect himself from the rain. The father then carries the child in his arms to protect him as best he can and he keeps repeating to his son "I love you, Its OK, I will get you home". Eventually they reach safety and everything is OK again. The father reminiscing about this experience says the closeness and the love he felt for his son during their perilous journey home was a defining moment in his relationship with his son and he valued that experience above all others. The moral I quess of this story is that you should not expect all your days to be sunny because it is inevitable that some day it will rain, it always rains. It may rain on you or somebody you care very much for. Don't feel that it is not fair that you or somebody close to you got wet and scared, it may just be a wonderful opportunity to experience something different and amazing that you would not otherwise have done. After the rain comes the sun.