NO RESERVES. NO RETREATS. NO REGRETS.

Today Allyson, my 9 year, old told me she is mad at God because she did not get to tell her little sister good-bye before she died.  She went on to talk about how it makes her sad to look at pictures of Emma smiling because she thought Emma was not happy anymore, but sad because she had to die.  We had a long talk about how sick Emma-Grace was and that even though we are sad, Emma-Grace is not sad anymore. I explained that Emma is well now, no longer having seizures or hooked to machines.  It is hard to explain all of the "whys" of death to a nine year old.  I told Allyson about how the Bible says our days are numbered and that God knew before Emma-Grace was born that she was going to get sick and die when she was 3 1/2 years old.  He also knew that Emma had no one to love her in China and that she needed a family.  We were blessed to be chosen by God to be her family and love her for 2 1/2 years.  I told Allyson that she had been a great big sister to Emma and had shown her the best "sister love" ever.

A great friend of mine suggested I have Ally and her brother Chris write Emma-Grace a letter.   In it they could tell her how much they loved her and good-bye.  When they are done writing, we are to tie the letters to a helium balloon and let it go so that we are sending their letters up to heaven.  Ally seemed excited with this idea, so that is the project for tomorrow.  I told her she could write a letter, draw pictures or both.  I explained to her it could be private, something she wanted only to tell Emma, but not us if she wanted.  Her tears dried up and she seemed satisfied with the plan.  I am sure this is not the last talk we will have about Emma and how much she loved her.  They were great friends.  She told me tonight that when I was not home she was Emma's little mommy.  If you know Allyson, you know this is true.

  

God doesn't guarantee any of us how long we will live.  I think having your child die makes this so much more of a reality.  A mother should never outlive her child.  The fact is that some people never live past infancy and other people surpass the century mark.  The Bible says our days on earth are like a vapor.  As Christians we need to recognize how short life really is.  That's why we have been commissioned by God to spread the good news of salvation.  "And then he told them, "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone" Mark 16:15.  The best thing is that this is just the beginning if we are a Christian.  Life in Heaven is forever.  I was reading a devotion about the brevity of life written by Tom Rutherford, a missionary who lives in Japan.  He wrote:   

Realizing that life is short can help us to properly value things.
 
When we realize that life is short, things take on a different value.

Things of eternal value become much more important.

I was blessed by reading some things said in an interview by Rick Warren the author of "The Purpose Driven Life" and the pastor of Saddleback Church in California. Here’s a summary of what he said.

“People ask me, what is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven. One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense. God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness. We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity? Am I going to be driven by Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes for my life?
 
I would like to close by sharing a little about a man who did indeed live a short life. His name is William Borden.

Throughout the history of missions, many missionaries have lived very short lives. William Borden is one of them. In fact he died before he even reached the mission field. William was the heir to the Borden Dairy estate. He was a millionaire before he graduated from high school. But he was willing to let everything go to follow God’s call to the mission field. He wrote in his journal, "say no to self & yes to Jesus every time." The Lord called him to reach out to the Kansu people in China. Since the Kansu people were Muslim, William stopped in Egypt to study Arabic before traveling on to China. However, while in Egypt he contracted spinal meningitis and within a month he died at age 25. Prior to his death, William had written these six words in the back of his Bible:  No Reserves. No Retreats. No Regrets.

William Borden was a man who seemed to have a good handle on the shortness of life and the need to invest all he had in the things of Christ. 

I love the quote: "NO RESERVES, NO RETREATS, NO REGRETS."  If only we could all say that.  I pray today that I am reminded daily that this life is just a vapor and by remembering that I live everyday as if it were my last.
 
“Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.” James 4:14