Today I reminded my students that the semester is over in two weeks. I received a rousing cheer. Other than the fact that I wanted them to groan because they would no longer hear my splendid lectures, I remembered being a student and thinking the same as they. One student said, “I wish it was over today.” How often do we wish our lives away? A four-year-old wants to be five. A fifteen year-old wants to be sixteen. I am sure it is so they can get a driver’s license. So what happens along the way? A fifty-five-year-old does not wish to be fifty-six. Somewhere in the middle of life we realize the clock is running.
When we have an abundance of time we wish it away. So often we fail to value now. It was rainy today and my students were complaining about the weather. Few if any treasured the gray, the mist, the sound of the wind wrapping around the corner of the building. I love to sit here with a book in hand and listen to the rain on the copper overhang outside my window. I don’t want this night to end. I don’t want this day to close. I want to taste it ever so slowly.
Jesus has promised us eternal life. I don’t understand what that means. We are so used to having life in this small box of time. When there is no end will we want to squander it? Will it matter if we wish a hundred years would go quickly so we could get somewhere else? Will we savor those we love knowing we can always have them? I so miss so many people.
Written by Roger Bothwell on April 22, 2009
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
rogerbothwell.org