Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…

 

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”

Robert Brault

 

I don’t ever put Christmas music away and very far from reach, because every now and then during the year, I find myself dragging it out again to play while driving in the car or working in the office.  I have those moments throughout the year when in dealing with whatever there is going on in my life, I just need to be reminded of that time of year again, that time in history, and of that forever thing which God did for me—and for you—in that moment in Bethlehem so long ago. 

And so, as we enter into this second week in the New Year, as I was gathering together the Christmas CDs, my eye caught one by Reba McIntyre entitled “Merry Christmas to You”, which brought to mind her haunting song of a few years ago “If I Had Only Known.” 

You may remember some of the words:

 

“If I had only known it was the last walk in the rain,

I’d keep you out for hours in the storm,

I would hold your hand like a life-line to my heart;

Underneath the thunder we’d be warm.

If I had only known it would be our last walk in the rain.”

 

             Other songs have been written about it.  Books have been written and shared from generation to generation to remind us.  The simple lesson from the words of that song have been shared, heard and at least for a time in most all of our lives—followed.  And then life sets back in and we are usually off to the races again in search of something we believe we should be after.  Something better—society would try to convince us to be true.

And those moments of time with the most precious of people—who we often find out too late matter the most—slip through our fingers and our lives.  We don’t really mean to let it happen.  We will do it tomorrow for sure—now we have to deal with all the urgent stuff before us in the seemingly never-ending scramble of things like careers to advance, games and trophies to be won, resumes to improve, status to seek, money to be made, and things to acquire.  For those are all the really big and important things.  Or are they?

 

“If I had only known it was the last night by your side,

I’d pray a miracle would stop the dawn…

If I had only known, if I had only known…

Oh, the love I would have shown…If I had only known.”

            But what if that really was our last walk in the rain?  What if tomorrow never came?  What if when we said goodbye to our family that one fateful morning as we headed out on a business trip—it turned out to be our last goodbye?  If we allow it to continue, won’t the urgent scramble always find another important thing to strive for—while all the most important and truly big things and moments of our lives are missed and lost?

            The conclusion should be obvious: why not make a change today? 

Maybe make it a resolution as we begin the New Year—but make it one that we together resolve to do it for life.  Why not commit today and every day to make each day count with those important people and moments in your life—those truly big things—as if there will be no tomorrow?

Just in case…

 

                                                                        In His Name—Scott

 

 

Copyright 2011.  Scott L. Whitaker.  All rights reserved.