A difficult day in Palo...

Those of you who live around Grand Rapids may have read the front-page article in today's Grand Rapids Press about the house fire at the Veteran's home in Palo on Sunday morning.  This fire was particularly difficult for our congregation at Palo because we have had several visitors from this home over the past year.  One of the two who died was a quiet man named Ray who joined us for worship three or four times.  I never got the chance to learn much about Ray, we talked before church started a bit and I encouraged him (and the others) to come back again afterwards.  Now all we can do is entrust Ray to the mercy of God and pray for whatever family he had.
You never really know how much of an opportunity you will have to minister to those who walk into the church each week.  Some you know are regulars and you have a chance to talk to them each week, but others come only sparingly (sometimes once or twice a year, sometimes regularly for a little while and then not).  As the church's pastor, I make a concerted effort to greet anyone who walks in and try to ensure that they feel welcome; but it's difficult to get past the pleasantries about the weather and such to really find who the visitors really are in a short conversation.  Sadly, we won't get the chance to work on that with Ray.