On Saturday morning at our Men’s Shed it was really good to see Chris. Formerly a trawler-boat captain he’s now an eighty-something great-grandfather who’s lived in Lowestoft all his life.
A few months ago, Chris was in hospital on life-support; we didn’t know if we would see him again. On Saturday he was there, recovered, large as life, giving and receiving good-natured verbal abuse, asking for the money we might have spent on a wreath for him…!
In the evening we watched the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance from the Royal Albert Hall in London. The impressive, thought-provoking concert, included poignant stories from The Gulf War, Bosnia and Iraq… We heard the familiar verse from Laurence Binyon’s poem ‘For the Fallen’:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
Yesterday at church Minister-Lou’s sermon on Malachi included the sentence, ‘Return to me, and I will return to you.’ Apparently, the Hebrew word used, ‘Shuv’ means to turn back, return, restore, or repent. It’s used throughout the Old Testament implying a reversal, a change of direction or action that might be physical or spiritual…
Reflecting on ‘shuv’, I thought of old Chris who had returned, Laurence Binyon’s young men who hadn’t returned…
I recalled that in Saturdays Festival of Remembrance had included the beautiful but ambiguous Christine McVeigh song ‘Songbird’
For you, there’ll be no more crying
For you, the sun will be shining
And I feel that when I’m with you
It’s alright, I know it’s right.
To you, I’ll give the world
To you, I’ll never be cold
‘Cause I feel that when I’m with you
It’s alright, I know it’s right.
It’s about a love that transcends presence or absence, joy or pain, war or peace, and gives… to the extent of laying down one’s life…
