For Everything a Season

 A time to be born, and a time to die. ( Ecclesiastes 7:17 ): — The verse has two parts: "There is a time to be born; and a time to die": and it seems as if a person has as little control over the one as over the other — over the day of one’s death as over the day of birth.

Recently we have observed both the passing of old friends and the birth of a new baby into our this world, and these events cause me to ponder what is most important in life. And to relish life itself, knowing that we are but sojourners for awhile on this earth.

Jim Bergquist was the pastor in Honolulu when he and wife Lorrie greeted me as I arrived for graduate school in 1963.  After long and fruitful lives they died earlier this year, their passing separated only by a month. There will be a joint funeral service tomorrow to commemorate their lives.  I haven’t heard of that happening before. 

Their life journeys have some similarities to ours in that they served the church in many places in the US and abroad.  Jim was a great theologian and scholar who held leadership positions in the Church and taught in seminaries in various Asian countries, including four years in India teaching at Gurukul Theological Seminary in Madras, India.

Jim and Lauri moved about a lot, as have we. The last time we saw them they were experiencing pain and diminished strength brought on by age (late 80s) - though they had  the ever present positive attitude they always exhibited.  At that time Lauri was reading two or three books on history a week. Judy and I mourn as we think about these wonderful friends, even though we saw them infrequently over the years and kept up via Christmas letters for the most part.  They left the world a better place and their legacy carries on through the many lives touched and taught, as well as through the lives of their children and many grand and great grandchildren.

On the other end of life we rejoice in the birth of our second great-grandchild, Lyonna Velgach on  April 28th, the second child born to our granddaughter Leslie and her husband Filipp.  We held a family gathering in Chicago in June with all three of our children, all but one of our six grandkids, and two great-grandchildren.  It gives us a wonderful appreciation for the continuity of the generations as we look back at our path taken in life and see the paths taken by each of our offspring, both affirming and diverging from ours. 

Jim and Lauri leaving Hawaii in 1964.

Bobby, Chris, Kathy and Mark.

One of our last visits with Jim and Lauri when they treated us to Indian food in Minneapolis, Dec. 2016.

The oldest and youngest in our family. Lyonna at two months, Jerry at 82 years.

Family in Chicago, June 2021.