Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

I write this as we prepare to depart for England for the choir residency and youth pilgrimage tomorrow morning. The choir sounds fantastic and energy is high. Lots of folks keep asking, “Are you ready to travel?”

The answer is no! Karrie a meticulous advance planner for trips. I am not. I tend to have a “go bag” that has a set of needful things for any trip. Beyond that, I rely on the Holy Spirit and coffee to make the final arrangements.

What I realized today is that I was not ready. But not in the usual ways. I still need to pack as I write this at 9:00pm on Thursday night. But I realized that the real preparation was not about packing but about people. More specifically, I needed to make the right preparations with our younger son who is not traveling.

So we swam today. We wrestled a bit. We followed a huge toad around. We did a little bike ride. We had a hamburger lunch and played around before bed time. I set up a little race track for him.

We did all the things to make sure that he knew that “goodbye” was a “see you soon” and “see you soon” means “I love you.”

I’m always struck that prayers in the Book of Common Prayer about evening or journeys almost always reference our final journey as well. For example, a Prayer for Evening reads, “O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last.”

Every day’s preparations, every journey’s planning, and every goodbye are a kind of preparation for our final journey. Each moment becomes more precious as our departure time grows closer. Each minute stretches even as each year seems to speed ever more quickly.

As shadows lengthen, as evening comes, as we make our journey’s preparations we have work to do. We have meals to share. We have calls to make. We have apologies to offer and forgiveness to accept. We have luggage we must unpack and burdens to lay down. We have communion to receive and companionship to give. We have all of life’s work that lays before us, behind us, and around us as the fever of life is over and our work is done.

As we prepare to depart let us truly prepare — let us rejoice where we may, listen when we must, speak what is love, and share the hope that is in us for the journey’s end which will never be a “goodbye” alone but always a “see you soon.”

Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert