It's Today!

Our twin boys, Dennis & Dustin, each had a school assignment [years ago] to prepare a personal timeline. The assignments became a family project - going through pictures, books, scrapbooks, albums, etc. We all hoped for a good grade! Life is a series of precious moments, and God desires us to embrace them all.  Abraham Lincoln once listened to the pleas of the mother of a soldier who'd been sentenced to hang for treason. She begged the President to grant a pardon. Lincoln agreed. Yet, he's reported to have left the lady with the following words: ''Still, I wish we could teach him a lesson. I wish we could give him just a little bit of hangin'."  Opportunities lost are familiar to all of us, and we know the sting of that "little bit of hangin'."  Oh, if life had those wonderful "rewind" and "replay" buttons! Well, it doesn't -- life has no rehearsals!  It is [rightly called] wisdom when we see wealth in the moments at hand.  Children grow up, neighbors and friends move away, the sun rises and sets, and death makes its unannounced call, to which we frequently respond with sighs and regrets.  I don't know what circumstance prompted David to write these words, but how profoundly they speak to busy people such as us: "As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But the mercy of The Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him." (Psalm 103:15-17). There are riches and great wisdom in seizing today, pressing it for God's Best. George in "Stuart Little" runs from his bedroom exclaiming, "It's today, it's today!" His mother reminds him "it's always today."  His reply is brilliant: "I know, but this is today!"  Charge today as if it will never be again ... as it won't. Don't miss God's blessings and opportunities.  It's today! It's today!