Father may what I share come before the eyes of those who need it. Use me as You see fit. I am grateful that You never give up on me. All praise to You!
********
All this week I have been sharing old posts with connections to Parsons, West Virginia. The church my dad pastored there will be celebrating 70 years of ministry in that community this Sunday. May the Lord continue to use them.
Acts 1:6-11 (<<click here to read the passage)
There’s a meme that’s been circulating on Facebook. It’ll have different pictures associated with it but the words that accompany it are pretty much the same.
At some point in your childhood, you and your friends went outside to play together for the last time, and nobody knew it.
Being my dad was a pastor, we moved frequently, never living in one place for very long. I think the longest we ever lived anywhere was four years. Most often it was two. Thankfully, it never bothered me very much. I seemed to readily make friends. I can remember many of my childhood friends.
There was Louie in Quick, WV – I was there for 1st grade and part of 2nd. There was Darla from the church in Archdale, NC – the rest of 2nd grade through part of 5th. In Mason, OH, Richie Davis and I became good friends. (He kept two eggs in a coffee can for a very long time for whatever reason. I was always afraid they would break!) We lived there through my freshman year in high school. Then we moved to Parsons, WV where my best friend was Rob Klein. He introduced me to The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, crepes and wassail at Christmastime, and the board game RISK (which I still love playing!)
Some of those relationships may have had more formal closure but I’m sure there were many relationships over the years where we did our thing and that was the last time, and we never saw each other again.
The disciples were with Jesus and asked when He would free Israel and restore our kingdom. Only the Father knew the answer to the question and after He once more reminded them of the Holy Spirit’s coming upon them…He was taken up into a cloud before their very eyes! One minute they were talking together, the next He was gone! And while they would soon have the Holy Spirit, they never saw Jesus again as they had for the last three and a half years.
Would they have asked different questions if they had known this was the last time? Would they have hugged Him (if men hugged in that era)? May they have sat down for one last meal with Him? What might they have done differently?
We never know when our “last” day will take place. It could be much closer than we think, or it might be many years down the road. We don’t know, so we need to make sure everything is in place as far as our relationship with Jesus is concerned. It’s something we can’t afford to put off. Our decision needs to be made and we need to live our lives taking that relationship seriously. May we never forget that today may be our last day, and we won’t even know it.
(Dec 9th, 2021, Thurs, 7:09 pm)
Aug 17th, 2023, Thurs, 4:47 pm
