Eyes Wide Open

It is 2:35a.m. and I find myself firmly entrenched in the midnight war, one side longing for the land of blissful dreamy sleep where I am a pro bassfishing, millionaire hunk, and the opposing side determined to prove to this old man that he CAN still function on only 3 hours of sleep in a day! It is at moments like these that I think of the craziest things!

For instance, I was just thinking about how butter sounds so much like the location it will soon permanently reside forever in, after being reincarnated as fat cells. Anyway... such craziness of random thought brought me to remember something my darling Lizzie dropped on us two nights ago.

We were sitting in the living room having just completed the nightly Battle Royal of getting everyone showered, hair combed, teeth brushed, homework finished and argument settled about the necessity of going to school tomorrow.... when Lizzie says "Mommy, I wish we did not have to blink, that way we would not miss anything!" This coming from the child that has never successfully kept her eyes open for a single family picture! I have gotten pretty good at photoshopping eyes on to her face!

After a few moments of laughter by everyone present, I began to ponder the thought. How long is a typical blink, and how many times do we blink in a day? I am sure that plenty of my hard earned tax dollars have been spent by some California graduated, tree hugging liberal to accurately determine this very thing. But to be honest... WHO CARES! Well, aside from Lizzie I would think the list of interested blinkologist would be a pretty elite group.

Anyway, after allowing myself to calm down from the thoughts of wasted government spending and fruitless studies of the Human Eye Covering Kinetic Yielding Excitement Action (that is HECK YEA we all blink for short) I began to think about what we really do MISS in the span of a single blink.

There are many things that can happen in such a short span of time that you would hate to miss, if you knew they were happening! Things such as a distant shooting star, the fleeting glance of a potential new friend, the flight of the hummingbird, or the rising cost of our national debt. Yes, all of these things happen faster than a set of rims disappearing at a Puff Daddy concert!

But then a sobering thought hit me as well. Someday, in the span of a single blink, our world, our lives, and our thoughts will change. 1 Corinthans 15:52 says "...in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." Immediately. Without warning. No more time to procrastinate. No more time to labor in vain. No more excuses.

In the span of a single blink, everything we have labored for, lived for, and longed for will be changed and we will either bow in admiration to the Bridegroom we have waited for, or we will bow in fear before the maker of the universe who will judge all of creation! It is a sobering thought to think about.

So I suppose there will be many who will someday agree with Lizzie.... and wish that there was no blink, because when last they blinked.... they missed eternity!

Love, Honor, Service
Pastor Eugene