Another June

June is a month of a lot of comings and goings in our large extended family. So many wedding anniversaries and birthdays take place in June.

In June we celebrate both my parents’ birthdays, my youngest brother Silas’s birthday, two nieces, Hannah Joy and Lydia, five wedding anniversaries, including ours!

We also remember my grandmother’s passing, and the births of two nephews who didn’t get to know any life on earth.

Late May marked the ten year anniversary of my grandfather’s death. He was a major part of my childhood and influenced hundreds for Christ.

So June is a happy and sad, remembering and celebrating kind of month. With flowers planted on graves at the family cemetery, juicy watermelon enjoyed by grandchildren, memories shared and old writings read aloud.

Every body buried in a wooden casket hand-carved by my uncle Frank, every grave marked by a cross. Amidst the birthdays and the tears, the remembering and the mourning, the persevering and the celebrating, every soul among us waiting for the Resurrection.