Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. [Psalm 90:12 (NIV)]
Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin. [Mother Teresa]
When my mother-in-law sold her Florida condo, my husband and I spent two weeks cleaning, sorting, packing, shipping, tossing and donating the possessions that remained after she moved north. Since we both had surgeries scheduled this month, we worked hard and fast to get everything done while we were still able to lift and tote. Once done, we congratulated ourselves that twelve boxes had been shipped and everything cleaned, disposed of or donated in record time. Then, we got a call from my mother-in-law! In spite of already having several sets of dominoes, she wanted the ones she’d left in Florida. They’d been made by a friend and had numbers instead of dots. Alas, we’d saved the nice new deluxe box of dominoes but not those. My husband returned to St. Matthew’s House, the recipient of said dominoes and searched for them at their three stores to no avail. They were gone for good; there was no buying them back.
The dominoes we can’t reclaim reminded me of something far more important that can’t ever be gotten back: time. Rich and poor alike, we all have a certain amount of time allotted to us and, like that hand-made set of dominoes, it is irreplaceable. Time, once spent, is gone and gone for good; no amount of money can buy or create more of it.
Today, a friend noted that it seems like a day doesn’t pass without a friend or relative receiving a serious diagnosis. Thinking of my prayer list, I had to agree. That list seems to get longer every day; names are added at a far faster pace than they’re crossed off it. While I love deleting a name when it means recovery, far too many times those names are taken off because of death rather than healing.
My husband had his surgery today so this day has been one of prayer and introspection; hospitals have a way of doing that to you. Praise God, it looks like his name will be one of the ones I can happily cross off my list because of healing. We are incredibly thankful and feel blessed by the time God has given us. Nevertheless, we both know there are far fewer years ahead of us than behind us and time seems to pass at warp speed. We don’t want to thoughtlessly dispose of any of those precious days the way we did a bag of dominoes. They can never be regained.
She just looked up at me and said, “Oh Earth, you’re too beautiful for anyone to realize.” I think we can all stand to learn that. To know that in our bones. And when she told me, “Honey, … Always take time with people in their 80s because for more than a decade, they’ve been looking right across the street at death and they know what’s really important in life.” I don’t know about you, but I can stand to hear that message. [Scott Simon, when speaking about his mother on NPR]
Devotions of the Heart 