What if this first year of the 21st century (or the last of the 20th — depending on what school of thought you adopt) was your last year on earth?

Suppose this was your last month, week, day? Would such knowledge make a difference in how you spend your time, resources, energy and affection?

Life is short at best. There is never enough time to do all we want to do. To say the things we wish we had said. To hug the dear one who walked away without the warmth of our embrace.

I would imagine that almost every individual reading these words has lost a loved one at some time or another. Maybe more than one. Perhaps many have gone on before you.

Were you left with regrets?

Regret is perhaps the most painful of all human emotions. It ought not to be. But we get busy, don't we? Too busy. And way always leads on to way.

Oh, we think we will turn around at some point in time, make our way back to the bend in the road where we said such hurtful words. Where we ignored the child who so eagerly longed for just an hour of our time — an uninterrupted hour. Where we first began to grow apart from the mate we promised to love and cherish forever.

Forever. Even forever gets interrupted, doesn't it?

If you know about that first hand, if you have lost a loved one expectedly or unexpectedly, then you probably briefly have entertained thoughts like the ones I am sharing today.

Briefly doesn't cut it. When will we realize today is all there is?

Those who have forewarning, like with the diagnosis of life-threatening illness, may be the lucky ones to some degree. At least they get a chance to evaluate things. To make right what can be made right. To turn the rest back over to God.

Back over? Maybe. I think He entrusts us with circumstances, relationships, opportunities, etc. through which we grow and learn. How we act and react to everyday life helps to mold us into what we are becoming for all eternity.

Eternity. That's like forever, isn't it?

Not exactly. There is no forever on earth. There is no proof of a forever in eternity. But by faith we believe there is a tomorrow on the other side.

So we are becoming. Always we are becoming. Even with our last breath we are still becoming.

Recall with me the words of Paul to the church at Corinth as he attempted to describe love. “Love never fails,” he said.

And he continued: “But if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes the partial will be done away... For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now abide faith, hope and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

My favorite line from the above quote: “I shall know fully just as I have been fully known.”

Let's face it. Sometimes, it is just too late to go back. Sometimes the ones we want to go back to grow up or move away or die and we can't return to that moment when things would have been different if we had only known then what we know now.

But guess what? God knew. With all my heart and soul I believe God knew all that we now wish we had known. And He, in His sovereignty, grace and compassion, watches over all of us — you, me and all those individuals we think of when we start saying “What if?”

Today is all we have, folks. There is no turning back. Do not wait until tomorrow to spend time with the little one who is waiting for you to “have time.” You will never have any more time than you do today. Hug those you love. Tell them you love them with word and action. Remember, there's faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.

And love, as we know it on earth, probably doesn't begin to touch the all-knowing kind that we will embrace on the other side. So do what you can today, and do it well. Live fully and don't fret over that which you can't change; leave that to God. He'll still be working in the lives of our loved ones long after we are no longer around to do all we wish we had said or done.

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