Here's a thought to carry with you as we enter the holiday season. It is worth the thought.
At some point in your childhood, there was a day when you and your friends gathered and played. It felt ordinary. Unremarkable.
But without knowing it, that day was the last time you would ever play together.
Life moved on. People grew up. Responsibilities intervened. And that moment quietly passed into memory.
There was also a day when a group of you came together, whether it was a graduation, a club meeting, or a reunion. It felt joyful. Full of laughter and possibility.
Yet without realizing it, it was the last time that group would ever be together in quite the same way.
Have you ever lost a loved one, a friend, or even an acquaintance?
If you think back, you can often pinpoint a moment when you were with them and unaware that it would be the final time. Unknown to both of you, the last exchange, the last laugh, the last goodbye.
Maybe it's a blessing that we don't have foreknowledge.
If we did, even our happiest moments would be shadowed by sorrow & lived while staring directly into impending loss.
But while we lack foreknowledge, we are gifted with something just as powerful: knowledge of the present.
And that should give us pause. And it should give us hope.
I know a former highway patrolman. He's a big, tough guy by any measure. Over the years, though, he figured it out.
If you meet him and his wife on the street, this burly former trooper will look you in the eye and make sure to tell you he loves you before you part ways.
It's a lesson for all of us.
You don't have to tell everyone you love them of course, though there are certainly people you should.
But every interaction should carry love.
Every conversation should be marked by respect.
Every departure should leave no doubt that the moment mattered.
It's a sobering thought.
But this Christmas, let it also be an anchoring one.
Be mindful of how precious each interaction truly is.
Of how fragile this thing called time is for us all.
Yet take heart. We are not powerless. We have control over how we show up, how we speak, how we treat one another.
We can choose to value each moment.
And still, we can carry hope for what lies ahead.
This Christmas – Value the moment….
PhillipMStephens.com.
1 Corinthians 16:14 (NKJV)
"Let all that you do be done with love."