This morning when I returned from services, a number of limbs were in the yard which needed to be retrieved.  I heard some of them fall during the rain last night, and as I was disposing of them, I looked over to see if my neighbors were home.  He was diagnosed with cancer about two months ago.  It has spread throughout his system.  Chemotherapy does not seem to be helping.

I thought how sad to have spent a lifetime of ranching and farming, accumulate many material possessions, reach 74 years of age and watch as he gradually relinquishes all he has to his daughter and son-in-law.  I would see his truck every morning during the school year leave his house and head to visit his friends at the doughnut shop. You could mark the time by your watch.  Same time every day.  I find it strange the things we get used to and miss when they are gone.  I have spoken to him once in the five years I have been here.  He has beautiful pristine pastures, and for mid August in Texas, and a much needed blessing of rain,  his pastures look as though spring has arrived.  He is not a Christian which makes it all the sadder.

Sooner or later we must leave all we have accomplished behind.  Degrees, homes, land, cattle, especially those we love.  All the things which for a moment gave us pleasure. We know these events will  happen, but we try not to think about them, and yet we must.  For we are not here to stay.  And then I recall how short our lives actually are.  A blink of an eye and we are gone.

“Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying, I go the way of all the earth:  be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man;  And keep the charge of the Lord thy God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, and His commandments, and His judgments, and His testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself:  That the Lord may continue His Word which He spake concerning me, saying,  If thy children take heed to their way, to walk before Me in Truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee said He a man on the throne of Israel.”    I Kings 2:1-4

“The days of our years are years are threescore years and ten;  and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow;  for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”    Psalms 90:10

“As for man, his days are as grass:  as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.  For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone;  and the place thereof shall know it no more.”    Psalms 103:`5-16

While we are here, let us make our time count.  Place God first in all you do.  Follow His pattern for becoming a Christian and remain faithful.  Living for Him daily gives us peace while we sojourn here, and the abundant blessings He gives us daily are much more enjoyable when we know He is near us and watching for His faithful children.  And when we pass from this life into the next, we will be ready, and be carried by the angels to a beautiful place of comfort, peace and rest.  Paradise.

“And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom:  . . . . ”   Luke 16:22

“And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me.  Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth:  Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours:  and their works do follow them.”        Revelation 14:13

Eileen Light