This from Lucy attracted my attention with its powerful idea of the sense of a 'God who doesn't turn up' when expected - or act as we might desire - and what they might say about how we understand (or don't) God.  It made me ponder again the concept of 'real absence' and some of the ideas in the apophatic tradition.  Good stuff to be pondering, and so relevant for the many I know who are experiencing their own 'dark nights' at the moment.

I will continue to mull over the idea of God not turning up - not least in relation to those servcies I sometimes go to where the leader invites Jesus/God/Holy Spirit to come and meet us, rather than inviting us to become aware of the presence of God who is more real than we are...

Thanks Lucy, for making me think.  Hope the 'unsettlement' process is going OK for you.

Later this morning I will be conducting a funeral for D+1.  An elderly woman who'd suffered with dememtia for almost a decade, and who had outlived by around 18 months a husband whose funeral I conducted last year.  Until I sat down to type this, I had not grasped the fact that this is the first time I will conduct the second funeral of a couple - I've done a fair few siblings and cousins, but not until today a 'surviving' partner of someone I'd farewelled.

Tomorrow I will be interring her ashes in the Anglican graveyard (!) along with those of her husband.  The intention of the family, is that the two sets of ashes will be mingled in a single casket, a powerful symbol of reunion, and an action that brings to mind the creation story of Genesis 2, almost in reverse, as the two become one, bone-dust blended and laid to rest in the security of the good earth from which they were, in some sense, formed.

Evidently this ash-burying area requires that biodegradable containers be used, so that in time the contents will indeed mingle with the earth, and that, too feels good.

I am told that Ernest* has spent the last 18 months in the boot of his son's car, whilst Elsie* will be brought straight from the crematorium.  I am glad that they will, in some metaphorical sense, be reunited, and that in some truly mystic sense something of God's intent is glimpsed.

* Names have been changed.