August is traditionally the last month of summer. It is also the month that I was born. On August 24th seven seven years ago I came into the world around noon on a Sunday. I had a lovely birthday this year with many Facebook greetings, texts, lovely "smail" cards, phone calls, and a special family party in the evening.
Ecclesiastes 2:3 says that there is a time to be born and a time to die. We need to think of life as a terminal illness, and we need to realize how short it really is. Life also has many sorrows and obstacles I have seen that first hand with my first husband's death at age 65, and I am reminded of that again with my second husband now being on Hospice in a skilled nursing facility. I see that also with my own bodily aches and pains.
For the child of God death and even pain is a blessing. It is not natural. It came, because sin entered the world. Yet for the child of God pain can be a pathway to maturing in the faith and a more intimate relationship with the Lord. Death is a just a pathway to heaven and the Lord's presence Paul says in Philippians 1:21, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
I believe we also need to live life with a thankful heart and live it with purpose and joy. The older I get the more I realize that can really only be found in a relationship with the Lord. We can enjoy temporal blessings, but they really only have meaning in the context of a relationship with the Lord and in the context of eternity.
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