There's something about going to a funeral-visitation
and listening to what people remember about the deceased person that is a huge reality check...
the memory can be something that seemed like a little thing in the moment,
but made an impression quite unawares!
So here's to the life we Have before it becomes the life we had!
As for man, his days are like grass—
he blooms like a flower of the field;
when the wind passes over, it vanishes,
and its place remembers it no more.
Psalm 103:15-16
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.
What is your life?
You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
James 4:14
So much of what we do may seem like nothing much at all
The days fly by as you and I reply to sundry call
Where in time’s seasoned swirl that twirls us round and
round again
We might forget the awesome Yet that waits and who knows
when
Life’s gauzy half-breath veil will fail and ope an
Awesome Door
Where all that will remain is what we are remembered for
The give and take that sometimes shakes our will and
wallets dry
The yes and no that in the moment is just a reply
The words we say that slip away through lips to listening
ears
Melds moments into That which in a twinkle disappears
And thus Becomes the sum of all we said, did, took and
gave
How very holy then, this one and only life we have
The plush brush that paints pictures on the canvas of the
heart
Seems common but is sacred in its rendering of art
For graves can never gather into bearings cold and staid
The echoes warm with laughter or the memories we made
Where much of what we do may seem like nothing much at
all
But shape, for those who yet remain the pictures they
recall
...as all who've gone before cannot return to tell the worth
Of total compensation for what seemed so small on earth
Where now the days fly by like flashes on a phantom reel
But then, when the last breath is spent, The Ultimate Reveal
Where God forbid we turned our backs on His amazing grace
Until we open up our eyes and meet Him face to face
© Janet Martin
I wrote the first three stanzas before church
then the message spoke so clearly of The Big Picture I needed to squeeze in one more stanza!
Yes, making great memories is great but at the end of our lives if that is all we have it is not enough!
For all we can keep at the end of our lives is what we gave away!
Beginning with surrender of Self.
Here is a link to the message:
Free To Be Serving
(one of my favourite quotes in this message is by Mother Theresa...
I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God
who is sending a love letter to the world.)
Job 34:11
For according to a man's deeds, He repays him; according to a man's ways, He brings consequences.
Matthew 16:27
For
the Son of Man will come in His Father's glory with His angels, and
then He will repay each one according to what he has done.
