Life Down Under

Thankful

I took Taylor to the park this morning, and as I stood and watched her play, I couldn't help but to feel overwhelmed with thankfulness:

Thankful that I have a daughter to bring to the park. I could be barren.
Thankful that I have a daughter who can play at the park. She could be disabled.
Thankful that I can play at the park. I could be terminally ill.
Thankful that there is a park to play at. We could be living in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Okay, so I guess that sounds a bit extreme and/or cheesy, but for real - most days I go through life just assuming that tomorrow is a guarantee and that we are all invincible and that all the 'good 'ole stuff' of life is just 'normal'; and I really do take it all for granted. I need to wake up. We all need to wake up.

Every now and then I do. (Admittedly not often enough). Maybe my moments of sobriety have something to do with the fact that I grew up with a mother who was terminally ill and who couldn't always take us to the park. She was a woman who must have lived every day of her sickness aware of the need to make every day count. Aware that there was not time to waste. It would do me good to take some cues off her, and choose to live my own life this way. For the reality of it is that we really don't have time to waste; that time is shorter than we realize, that life is short and precious, and in a moment, everything could change. I am speaking not only of the 70 or 80 years we assume we have been given, but also of the hour of history in which we live. Of the realization that the landscape of our earth could change in a moment, and life as we know it could imminently come to a screeching halt. Of the fact that the hour of trouble is not as far away as we'd like to think it is.

And so, in light of that, we must choose to live our lives in watchfulness and in prayer. And in thankfulness of what we have and the time we have been given. And in wisdom to not squander it away.