Yesterday in The Upper Room Chapel we held a service of celebration for Alive Now, the beloved publication which began in 1971 and ceased publication at the end of April, 2017.
Ron Patterson, Alive Now's founding editor, came to be with us, along with former Alive Now staffers Pamela Crosby and Deen Thompson. All of the prayers, hymns, and stories in the service had been published in the magazine at some time its 47 years.
Ron sent us out from the service by reading the blessing I wrote for the last issue of the magazine. "Bless This Journey." As I stood and listened to my words proclaimed by Ron, it seemed just right. The first editor and the last editor, joined together in love, in grief, in the certainty that God travels with us and guides us, even now, into uncertain futures.
Bless This Journey
We stand at the threshold and look behind us
At all that we have done,
At all that we have loved,
At all that is familiar,
And our hearts fill with grief,
With sadness,
With gratitude.
We stand at the threshold and look before us
At the future we can and cannot see,
At the beginnings we can and cannot imagine,
At the possibilities we can and cannot know,
And our hearts fill with fear,
With trust,
With hope.
Bless our grief and our gratitude,
Our sadness and our trust,
Our fear and our hope.
Bless this journey,
God of past and future.
Guide our steps,
Walking beside us,
Before us, within us
As we step across this threshold.
"Bless This Journey," from Alive Now, M/A 2017. Copyright © 2017 by The Upper Room.
Comments