Brevity

We went to our second wake in as many weeks tonight. A neighbors father passed away after a quick battle with a rare disease. Her kids are about the same ages as ours and we've lived two doors away for over a decade now. Her father would often come over with his big black pick-up truck and all the neighborhood kids would climb in the back and hide under moving blanks to jump out and surprise him. He always played along.

After watching some of their cousins say "good-bye" to their grandmother when my sister--in-law's mom passed a couple of weeks ago and now their school friends do the same with their grandpa my kids are beginning to realize the same thing may happen to them sooner rather than later.

We've been so blessed to have both sets of grandparents still living, each within ten minutes of our house and active in our kids lives. But it's dawning on all of us now we won't have them here forever.

Each time we hear about someone dying Maggie seems to re-mourn the loved ones who passed during her lifetime. Mostly Great Aunts and Uncles. Of course my knee-jerk reaction is to make her feel better about it but I'm beginning to realize there's value in letting her grieve for those we miss.

I'm increasingly aware of these opportunities to preach the Gospel to her and to myself.

This life is so short. The older I get the faster it goes.

What an equally sobering and comforting thought it is to know this life does not begin to compare with what our heavenly Father has in store for those who love Him.