As we approach the family holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas, our thoughts go to our dearest family and friends. And we want and need to be with them.
Sometimes I wish that I could go back for a day to many years ago and be with my beloved family, my parents and my brothers and sisters who have passed away. I think I would appreciate them so much more than I did then. I would realize how precious they were, how swiftly time passes and how many things we can’t do over again. Maybe we should just get them right in the first place.
We are surrounded by our loving friends and family. Do we tell them how much we love them? Do they know how important they are to us? I find that they haven’t suddenly become perfect, but I don’t have an hour or a day to spare to be mad at them. If I spend an hour in anger, it is an hour that can never be regained. Wasted, when I could have used that time for good.
There is a scene in Thornton Wilder’s classic, “Our Town,” in which Emily, who died in childbirth, is given the gift of a day to return to her town and see it as it was.
The Bible says life is a vapor—that it is like grass which lives a very short time and passes quickly away. The book of Hebrews, much-loved by me, shows a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us—those who have lived and persevered and who then went on to Glory.
She chooses her twelfth birthday, a cold winter day. She sees her family going matter of factly about family business. Emily sees it all in a new light and says, “It goes so fast. We don’t have time to look at one another. Oh, Earth, you’re too wonderful for anyone to realize you. Do human beings ever realize Life while they live it—every, every moment?”
If there is a handle on this business of life, the saints have it. We do not own Time, but we are in possession of Eternity.
Thoughts From the Garden 