You don't realize how short life is...

...until you know someone who is dying. I didn't expect it at all but then, does anyone ever expect to be told that a family member has only a few weeks left to live? My aunt has always been a vivacious, happy, and beautiful person and to learn that she had terminal cancer was like being stung by a bee-you don't feel the pain until you are stung. Knowing that my aunt will meet her Savior sooner than anyone thought has made me re-examine my view of life.

I truly thought that I understood how short life is in comparison with eternity but I think I was mistaken in saying that I did understand. Each day that we have with someone is a gift from God and it is our choice to value or disregard that gift. Whether we notice it or not we often don't see each moment with the people we love as something that God could take away in a moment. We do not know that we have one more minute, second or hour with someone and when we forget that we lose what cannot be replaced.

Never take for granted that you will forever have your family or that a person you love could not be with Christ more quickly than you ever anticipated. The reality that I faced as I thought about my aunt was a reality that brought into perspective how temporal our lives are in contrast to the endlessness of eternity. As Christians we can have the peace of knowing that we will spend eternity with our loved ones if they too our children of God. Life is short and I do not know when you or I may enter into eternity but I would say this-life is short; never underestimate the preciousness of one moment of life that the Lord has given you.

"They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies."
-William Penn