I was sitting on my porch this morning taking in the beauty of fall in the air! I found myself reflecting that this is the 59th fall I will experience! Hard to believe. The older one gets we often say things like—where has the time gone, the days go faster as you get older, time flies.
Days like today my mind goes to the question that the apostle James asked:
What is your life like? For you are a mist that appears for a little while then vanishes. -James 4:14b
…a vapor
…a puff of smoke
…a fog
…a breath
I don’t think James was trying to depress anyone!
I don’t think he is trying to say that our lives are of no value or that we do not matter. In verses 13-17 it is clear that James is calling out those believers that are putting all of their confidence in their personal business and travel plans. He is warning the “go-getter” that we do not know what tomorrow holds. Yes, we can plan, but let us hold our plans loosely lest HE wants to change them!
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there doing business and making money. Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the right to do and fails to do it, commits sin. -James 13-17
Are the days going faster as I get older? Probably not.
I think I am just more aware of what a treasure each day is.
“Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. “ Mary Jean Iron
Just as the leaves are so fragile as they begin to fall, so are we.
Friend, let us plan on making today count.
Let’s not worry about tomorrow or bank on our own ideas. Let us make the most of today, for it is “a mist that appears for a little while then vanishes”, after all.
That does not mean that we should sit on our porch doing nothing! A gardener works hard to keep his garden growing, watering and weeding, pruning and re-planting. Our spiritual garden includes all of those around us, be it children, friends, siblings, parents, grand-children, acquaintances, neighbors.
What good can you do today to help your spiritual garden grow?
Gardener of My Heart 