Sacred (and not-so-sacred) Moments

• I assisted with the Ash Wednesday service a week and a half ago. I'm still thinking about it because there was something so sacred about dipping my thumb in a bowl of ashes, looking each individual in the eye, and saying "Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return." Amen and amen.
• I've made a lot of visits to homebound and nursing home members lately. As I pray aloud at the end of each visit, I am struck every time by these precious children of God joining me in the Lord's Prayer even though they don't know what day it is or where they are or who I am. But that prayer is lodged in their memory.
• Yesterday the pastor, an elder and myself served homebound Lord's Supper to four individuals. It had been a long day of worship, meetings, and the CROP Walk. By the time we arrived at our last stop, it was 7pm. The last woman we were to serve lives in a memory unit of a facility. It was an interesting service. We had individuals interrupting us throughout and one woman shouting and swearing at us as we closed the service in prayer. Yet, there was also the moment when we asked the woman if she had any favorite hymns we could sing in closing. She burst into all six verses of some hymn that we struggled to find in our packets.