“Don’t brag about tomorrow, since you don’t know what the day will bring.” Proverbs 27:1
Toward
Sitting at the stop sign waiting to pull onto the main street I watched the traffic hoping for an opening. One by one the cars passed by. Near the end of the line came an older model and I noticed the passenger side window was down. As it approached, a young man in the seat stretched his arm out the window pointing directly toward my windshield making the image of a gun with his hand. Looking straight at me, eyes locked on mine, he acted out pulling the trigger.
Had the gun been real, I’d have died that day, in my car, at a stop sign, on my way to the Piggly Wiggly. Life is fragile. I didn’t need to be reminded of that with our tiny grandson in the hospital fighting for his life, but, it’s important to remember how easy it is for us to forget that.
Busy days, wrong priorities, self-confidence, and so much more can blind us into thinking we have all the time in the world to get it right. Then, in the blink of an eye, “normal” life shatters into a million pieces and is gone.
“The reality is you have no idea where your life will take you tomorrow. You are like a mist that appears in moment and then vanishes another.” James 4:14 (The Voice)
Jesus also knew the fragility of human life as He carried his cross toward the hill of Golgotha where he would be crucified. Jesus did die in that moment. He died with his eyes locked on you and me and He didn’t look away. Why? Because He knew that His death gives us the opportunity for new life.
“Now the Lord is not slow about enacting His promise-slow is how some people want the characterize it-no, He is not slow but patient and merciful to you, not wanting anyone to be destroyed, but wanting everyone to turn away from following his own path and to turn toward God’s. Knowing that one day all this will come to pass, think what sort of people you ought to be-how you should be living faithful and godly lives, So, my friends, while we wait for the day of the Lord, work hard to live in peace, without flaw or blemish; and look at the patience of the Lord as your salvation.”
2 Peter 3:9,11a,14-15 (The Voice)
I’m guessing you probably don’t need to be reminded how unpredictable this life is either, but maybe like me, you also don’t want to forget how we should be spending every day, moment, and breath now. And so, we must stop living for ourselves and instead move toward God, living faithfully and keeping our eyes locked on the One who stretched out His arms and with his broken body fixed ours, not just for today, but for life eternal.
I felt sick when you told the story of the kid pretending to have a gun. That’s heartbreaking to me. But I know what you mean about life changing in a heartbeat. We don’t know when our next step will unlike any we’ve ever taken. I am assured by this: “Knowing that one day all this will come to pass, think what sort of people you ought to be-how you should be living faithful and godly lives, So, my friends, while we wait for the day of the Lord, work hard to live in peace, without flaw or blemish; and look at the patience of the Lord as your salvation.”