I helped a friend celebrate a significant birthday this past week. It was a lovely party, good friends, wonderful food, lots of laughter and a few tears. At one point of the party she offered a toast to her mother who died only a few weeks ago and her new granddaughter who will be born in a very short time. She recognized that she was 'perched between generations.' It was a sweet moment to recognize the life events of this dear friend.

Later in the day I thought of how we are all, in a sense,'perched between generations'. Sometimes we are simply more aware of it than others. As I have been blessed to celebrate so many high school graduations over the last months, I have honored the generation whose births I have witnessed. This particular generation I have watched toddle, then run and now walk bravely, yet with appropriate trepidation, into a new world. At each of these graduation parties the grandparents present look on with pride and satisfaction. The parents, myself included, are still wobbling in a state of wonderment and uncertainty. Wonderment at where the time went and uncertainty for what our children's success and growth will bring, not only for them, but for us. The title 'empty-nester' still has a complicated ring.

And so it has always been. Children are born, they mature and grow. Parents learn to let go and find new ways of being parents. Grandparents look on and remember what their dreams were for their children, grieving loss and celebrating success, whatever those terms mean to them. Each of is always perched between generations.

One of the great gifts of working in the church is that I am privileged to be a part of important life events with people. Last week I celebrated the baptism of a beautiful baby whose mother I knew as a vibrant, inquisitive child. It was a blessing. In just a few moments I am off to sit at the bedside of one of the saints of our community who is the last days of her earthly life. It will also be a blessing. Once again I will touch that thin place of knowing that the membrane between the generations is  beautifully permeable. The blessing comes in knowing that the Spirit holds the web gently so none of us fall through the weave.

"God's love is everlasting and God's kin-dom endures from generation to generation." Daniel 4:34