I Didn't Die Last Night, So Today Is A Gift!

Last night our family found ourselves entirely too close to an active shooting scene.  The local news has all the specifics, but as we sat stuck in rush hour traffic, we heard the sound of four to five gunshots very close by.  We had our kids all duck down as I quickly looked around to try and figure out what was going on. Vehicles started making U-turns and driving away, but we continued moving forward with the traffic, not aware of what had taken place. It became quite apparent to me that something terrible had just happened as we passed a truck parked in the middle of the street. The front window was shot out, a man and woman were obviously suffering and an eerie wail came from the vicinity of the vehicle. We were still not completely aware of the magnitude of what had just happened, but we later learned that there had been a shooting and the driver of the vehicle was dead.

 

I realized that, because of the heavy, slow moving rush hour traffic, had we arrived a minute earlier, our vehicle may have been fifty yards closer and right where the suspect carjacked another vehicle after shooting this couple!  I thanked God for His protection, but then a thought crossed my mind. What if the innocent victims were believers, did God not protect them?  Where was he when they needed help?  Why did he protect us and someone else we know, who the gunman actually walked by their vehicle twirling his gun, but not the victims? 

 

As I tossed the thought around in my head, another thought came to my mind; the Bible verse in Ecclesiastics 3:2 that says there is "a time to be born and a time to die".  It wasn't so much an issue of protection, but it simply was not my time to die.  Since it was not my time to die, clearly God still has some plan for my life that needs to be accomplished.  His plan for me could end today, in five years, or in fifty more, but since I'm alive, there is work to do.

 

My point is quite simple today; I didn't die last night, so today is a gift!  I should be grateful for the gift, do something with the gift and for goodness sakes, not waste the gift!  So if you are reading this, you obviously didn't die last night.  You should be grateful for the gift of life and not waste it!  What will you do with your gift of today?

 

Thanks for reading!