Rainbows

When I first came to Beaumont to interview for the call to Westminster Presbyterian, I'll have to admit that I mostly came out of curiosity. I'd lived here almost 20 years earlier and hadn't been back once since I left. The trip was more of an opportunity to look over familiar places than a really clear sense of call. After all, the week before I'd been on an interview that I was fairly certain was "the" place.

Yet I came ... out of curiosity and a desire to maintain the integrity of the call process.

Driving around town before I met with the committee, there came the typical Beaumont afternoon thunderstorm. Full blown. Huge dark clouds. ... and the biggest, most beautiful rainbow I'd seen in a very long time. Ummmm... maybe it was time to reassess my sense of call.

And I let myself listen to these faithful people, these friends, and listen for the Spirit, that still, small voice I'd been waiting on through the whole process.

In the almost six years I've been here since, we've been through some good times and some difficult times and been in ministry together. This past year has been the hardest as we wrestled with the incredibly difficult decision to dissolve the congregation and then actually do it.

The past two months have been especially difficult, with the reality beginning to set in and the saying of goodbye, experiencing "the lasts" together. Grief is a long journey and shared by many in different ways.

Last Sunday, we celebrated our final worship services. Prepartion for both of them was intense and complex. The weekend was deeply exhausting and deeply fulfilling. Worship was an experience of holy grief and care for one another.

On Wednesday, the congregation held a "Pastor Care" party for me, to spend time with each other and share blessings for the future.

Once again, those Beaumont afternoon/evening rains hit the area. One of the members went outside to get something from his car and came back in to report that there was a glorious rainbow outside.

We all traipsed out to watch it as the evening lengthened and the sun went down. A beautiful rainbow, spanning the sky in all its brilliant shades.

And, as I watched, there was a sense of completion.

"Well done, good and faithful servant."