The Casting Crowns have a popular song called “Who Am I?” I hear it ever so often on the Sound of Life radio station. Part of the lyrics say, “I am a flower quickly fading. Here today and gone tomorrow. A wave tossed in the ocean. A vapor in the wind.” It is likely based on Psalm 103:15-16 (NRSV), which says,
“As for mortals, their days are like grass; they flourish like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.”
I have to say, fall in the northeast is certainly spectacular. The leaves on the trees with all the different variations of colors are simply majestic. It is a visual reminder of how awesome our Creator is. And when I am driving in my car during this time of year, I am almost overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of it all. And I try as much as is possible to take it all in. To appreciate it. To marvel in it. To enjoy it for its magnificence. Because I know that soon it will all be gone. In a matter of weeks it will all be gone and there will only be bare branches left.
And so I don’t want to say, so what? I have seen it before. And I don’t want to think, big deal. I will see it again next year. Because who says I will. So I try to get the most out of it and try to enjoy it to the fullest. Isn’t that a good analogy for my life as well? Isn’t that the way I should think about my life too? Realize that I might be here today, and gone tomorrow. Contemplate my own mortality and know that this life is a gift from God that will only last a certain time. And that I should make the most of it and live it to the fullest, while I’m still alive.
There was a piece in the New York Times by contributing editor Arthur C. Brooks. He wrote, “Years ago on a visit to Thailand, I was surprised to learn that Buddhist monks often contemplate the photos of corpses in various stages of decay. The Buddha himself recommended corpse meditation. ‘This body, too,’ students were taught to say about their own bodies, ‘such is its nature, such is its future, such its unavoidable fate.'”
It seems a little morbid, but I’m sure the realization of your own mortality clearly sinks in when you go through an exercise like that. And so maybe when we take some time to reflect on our own finite life, and realize there is no guarantee for tomorrow, it might help us to live a fuller, more meaningful and significant life. Like someone said, the sad truth for many of us is that we’d rather spend our time clicking through someone else’s life than actually living our own. So maybe when we focus on the brevity of life, we will instead of always reminiscing and living in the past, or pining for and dreaming about the future, be more inclined to fully live and experience the moment we are in now.
So enjoy the final days of the spectacular fall foliage show God is putting on for our enjoyment! And make the most of every day. Resolve to live it to the fullest. It is a precious gift from God. Because we may be here today, and gone tomorrow!
