I particularly like this photograph – it tickles my funny bone! By the 1860’s the Paddington Cemetery (adjacent to Christ Church Milton) was in disrepair which only got worse as time rolled – as is evidenced by the hirsine habitation caught on camera around 1910, where it was noted that both ‘kids and goats gambolled over the last resting place of the dead’ (qld govt archives)
I rather like the idea of children (which I assume were the kids), playing over graves – most likely blissfully unaware of the disapproval of their elders (the goats most certainly were!). Their ‘gambolling’ speaks of life being lived in the present, which we as adults find so hard to do!
We are remembering the passing of our loved ones this coming week with All Saints (November 1st) and All Souls (November 2nd). For some of us the grief of a loved one dying is still sharp, for others it may be a dull throb or a tender twinge of loss. But we do honour their memory, their lives and their part in bringing us to the present day.
In Luke’s gospel Jesus calls to the derided and short-statured Zacchaeus from his perch in a tree and insists that Zacchaeus welcome him– ‘I must stay at your house today!’.
In Christian faith we live in the hope that our loved ones who have died are in the house that Jesus went to prepare for all and that Christ’s presence is with us always – to the end of time.
Time – past, present and future – held secure in God’s hands.
Blessings
Ceri
