Here today, gone tomorrow...

“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world.”

   - E.B. White

 He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth,' and to the rain shower, 'Be a mighty downpour.’

     - Job 37:6

 He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes.

    - Psalm 147:16

Last night I stood outside for a bit just watching the snowflakes falling… they were the big, beautiful, fluffy kind that fall like white confetti from the sky. I couldn’t help but think about all the times I had been in East Texas growing up and prayed that something frozen would fall from the sky just once during the winter. I’ve probably seen more snowfall and more days of snow here in one winter in Indy than I have my whole life growing up in East Texas. The interesting thing to me is that I think there are many who live in the north (and probably the south as well after this winter) who are ready to see winter come to an end… enough of the snow seems to be a common mantra. I will gladly welcome spring and the beautify of it all as well, but I’m not in a hurry to see another season come and go. As I stood outside watching the flakes fall, I was reminded again of how fleeting our days really are.

I stood outside an extra bit last night just for the pure and simple reason that I didn’t know if I’d get to just stand outside in the snow and watch it fall again for a while… I was reminded of how many things we do for the last time and how sometimes we know it and sometimes we don’t. For example, I can flashback to the last college football game I suited up for… I remember watching the clock wind down and knowing in my heart that it was the last competitive game I would ever suit up for… the last warm-up, and ( the way I spent the last game) the last time I would sit the bench and watch my teammates play (lol). I also think about the last time I saw Granddaddy on this earth… it was a July morning – Jacqueline and I had come in from North Carolina to celebrate July 4th with my family. Granddaddy stopped by that morning of our departure and brought some fresh cucumbers that we cut up and ate while we visited. It was just a simple thing really… he had probably stopped by 100’s of times in the course of my life, but that one will be forever etched in my memory. Jacqueline and I were off to the airport to fly home in a few hours – little did I know it would be the last time I would see him on this earth. I don’t think it would have changed anything had I known it would be the last… I really enjoyed him stopping by – he made me laugh the way he always did and he gave me ones of those Granddaddy hugs that only he could give. I’ll probably miss most about him the way he greeted me – I always felt like a prince. Not all last times are a sad occasion though… I think about the “last first kiss” I hope to ever have and how refreshing it is to know that I don’t have to “chase” after another girl. Lord willing, I’ve been rejected by a woman I seek to commit my life to for the last time. Last times are some of the best times… so be on the lookout. Sometimes everything changes in an instant and you can miss it… I think of the disciples dining with Jesus one last time during the last supper, and He reminding them that they wouldn’t dine together again on this earth with him in that manner. I don’t think they fully realized it would be the last. I’m always delighted to remind myself that in Heaven, there are no last times… I guess in a way, there are endless first times – “with no less days to sing God’s praise, than when we first begun”.

There are a lot of last times on this earth – we probably have more of them than we can even count. Maybe the next last time we encounter will be a first – the first time we begin to “number our days aright” – the first time we just stand and watch the snowflakes for a while – the first time we embrace the moment, knowing full well it might be the last. Last times, like first times, come and go in a blink – be on the lookout, it really could be your last.

Like Marcel Proust once said, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

May God grant us each day the ability to see with new eyes…