Joy and sorrow

Tonight I was going to post about finishing this puzzle. Since I started it two days after Christmas last year, it's taken a long time to reach this point. So I was pretty excited that I was finally finished. But this evening, that doesn't seem so important anymore.

Today is a sad day for friends in our church family who have lost their little boy, Sam. You can read his story here. Sam was born with a condition called campomelic dysplasia. He lived longer than anyone expected him to. He wasn't expected to survive birth but he defied all the odds. He would have turned three in early September. We rejoice knowing that Sam is in heaven and that there will be no more tears or pain for him there, but we grieve with his family who will be missing him so much right now. Please pray for his Mum and Dad, Kate and Simon, and his big sister Faith.

And I was also sad this evening to hear the news that Margaret Olley has also died today. It seems fitting that her portrait by Ben Quilty which I blogged about here a while ago won the Archibald Prize this year. A great tribute to an amazing artist who was painting right up to when she died.

As it says in Ecclesiastes 3, "for everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven." Sometimes these times just seem to all come very close together...