When I was a child even a young adult life was about me, my friends, my family and so many years ahead to spend time together. Now that I am older and have experienced life I now know how short and fragile life is. We all have a timeline that God has given us. He knows it we do not. He has numbered not only the hairs on our head but the days we have to live on this earth. When I look at life that way, His way, it makes me think. What can I do to make a difference in the lives of my loved ones and those that are lost. The longer we live we experience the part of life no one likes to talk about, death. When you are young that usually isn’t part of your vocabulary other than a precious pet that dies. I have experienced family members and friends dying in what I consider too young. But they have reached the part of their timeline that ends their earthly existence. It is hard to comprehend but God tells us to trust Him.
My mother and my mother-in-law, both the same age, are reaching the end of their time. Both are ill and unable to care for themselves. I have a younger brother with lung cancer and a younger cousin with ALS. A friend who doesn’t know the Lord asked me today how I deal with all of this. My unemployment and ill family members. My answer: It is all part of God’s plan and all in His hands. This is life. Yes, it is sad.
The flip side of all this is the wonderful life events that are happening. My oldest son just got engaged to a lovely gal I am so excited to have as a daughter-in-law. A couple of young ladies from my church are expecting first babies. All my sons are working in the careers they went to school for. I have two young granddaughters living life like I did at that age. Innocent and full of fun and learning. This is life. It is happy.
Happy, sad and a lot of other emotions thrown in is part of life. We spend time with people, pour our lives into theirs, laugh with them, cry with them, get angry at them, get jealous of them, forgive them, ask them to forgive us, reminisce with them. In other words ‘do life with them’. Then their life is cut short and a piece of us is missing. It hurts, we cry, we get angry with God but at the end of ‘the day’ we know that this is life and we need to find a new normal without that person.
Some of you may have experienced very difficult times in your life and are struggling. I have been there and totally understand. So please don’t take what I am saying as a platitude. I am just sharing where I am right now. I have lived long enough to experience a lot of life pleasant and unpleasant and because of my relationship with Jesus Christ I have learned to leave these things at His feet and move on asking Him to guide me. It isn’t easy but it is necessary to keep me moving and able to be a light for others. I want to be able to hear when my time comes, Well done good and faithful servant.
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