bolt from the blue

From time to time there are bolts from the blue.

Metaphorical ones, anyway. Things that happen, entirely unexpectedly, and major in significance.

I've not been struck by lightning, but it's that sort of effect they have. Sudden, swift and massive, with a power behind them which can knock you completely to the ground.

That sort of thing is what happened today.

I learned that last night one of the notable elders here had died. Entirely unexpectedly.

The news cast a shadow right over the day, affecting us all as we feel just a bit of the sorrow his family must now all be knowing.

The news coloured everything, really.

And it somehow seemed apt that at lunchtime there was our customary service of worship. And apt as well that at that service we were taking the bread and the wine and remembering Jesus' death.

Alex was a big man, in really every way. But a genuine Christian gentleman, if ever there was such a man. He was always so much of an encouragement. And always so fervent and earnest in prayer. And a lovely family too.

To say he'll be missed is to understate the case.

And to say we were all quite taken aback by the news of his death is barely to give you a hint of the impact it's had.

There was a time of prayer as usual at night. One of the men said, as he prayed, that it felt like we here were just under attack. I know what he means.

These are not easy days at all.