Leaning into Lib…and healing…

Lib Carter was a member of our First Church Miami from birth and sang in the choir for 75 years. This past week we celebrated her life and legacy with her family, friends and church. The service was beautiful and hard.

In so many ways the service was hard because Lib’s passing also signified the passing of a very special generation in our church. The past few years I have done several funerals of Lib’s friends. I mourn each of them and find myself brokenhearted that they will not be moving into our new church with us.

Many of us at First Church have experienced pain in losing Lib. Some may not have known Lib but we all have had some loss in our lives- recent and in the past.

This week as we work towards leaning in we will focus on leaning into healing.

Healing is hard. So often we work to heal by forgetting or stuffing or keeping busy or moving on.

In scripture we learn that the way towards healing is not covering things but bringing them into the light and let God heal them.

Today we were able to go to the Steinway Factory to choose a piano for our new church building. After many hours we landed upon one and Gerard suggested we name her, Lib, and said that this way Lib could continue to sing in our sanctuary even though she will never get to be there physically.

We then played her favorite hymn and cried a bit and we all felt a bit more at peace.

This week I encourage each of us to work on healing. What hurts in your life? What is hard? Take some time to lift that up in prayer and conversation with a trusted friend or counselor. Find ways to bring it to the light and let God heal it! Knowing that when we do a small piece of heaven is found on earth!
Amen!

See you Sunday,

Pastor Audrey