Why Can't Our Story Go On Forever?

This week, while we are in Florida, we reunited my youngest son with some of his buddies that he's known since he was two.  They all grew up together in an unorthodox preschool that was on an honest-to-goodness farm.  

The lady that ran the school no longer keeps kids, but this week she agreed to a week-long summer camp reunion.  To say that my boy has been excited about this is a gross understatement.  

As I was driving him there yesterday, I drove past the road that led to where my parents lived before they moved with us to Texas.  I had to fight off the urge to make the turn... to drive the familiar streets... to pull into that driveway... and to find my mom still there.  

Grief never really goes away completely, I'm learning.  It just finds a place in your heart where it lives quietly until those moments when you remember that there's an empty space in the world where the one you loved used to be.  

And then it noisily and painfully surfaces to remind you that you are still alive, and they aren't.   

I heard a song by the group Lord Huron yesterday that spoke into my moment of grief and remembering:  

I said life is a tale, it begins and it endsAnd forever's a word that we can't understandWell I know that my life's better when we're togetherSo why can't our story just go on forever?

I said life without end wouldn't have any meaningThe journey to death is the point of our beingWell the point of my life is to be with you babeBut there ain't enough time in the life that they gave me.

I think that grief can serve to keep us honest.  It can help us to remember that life is short and that if we are to make the most of our days on earth we need to start living life for a living.  

Psalm 39:5 echoes this when the psalmist sings: 

You have made my days a mere handbreadth;    the span of my years is as nothing before you.Everyone is but a breath,    even those who seem secure.

Today and every day after this, focus on pouring your time and energy into the people God has placed in your life in life-giving, heart-forward ways.  

Remember that "everyone is but a breath," including you.  Live each day in joy.  Celebrate each moment in hope.  Start your eternal life right here, right now.

And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen.