My family is in Defcon 1 waiting for the arrival of Baby R. For the last few months, if it wasn’t wedding talk, it was baby talk. (And I don’t mean the high-pitched, Rs-turned-to-Ws kind.) Everything from onesies, decorating, names, birth plans, and many what-ifs and future plans. And in a few days (hopefully!) we will meet this little person that has been the topic of so much varied conversation. I have no idea what she’ll look like (other than relatively squished for the first few hours!), I have no idea what kind of personality she’ll have (though I do pray that she eventually develops some level of verbous-ness!), and I don’t know whether she’ll be as mechanically-minded as her father or as servant-hearted as her mother (maybe both?). But what I do know is that the day that little Baby R is born, the entire family will be in great celebration.
Birth is the first of two significant bookends–and for good reason! Babies are brilliant. Babies are incredible. Babies represent new, untouched, untainted potential. Babies show us the creative mind of God.
As the clock literally ticks the moments of Baby R’s birth closer, my anticipation to meet my new niece grows. I cannot wait to glimpse her tiny little face.
But while birth is brilliant, incredible, fresh, and creative, it isn’t the most significant bookend. I think the second bookend is actually more significant. Call me morbid, but death has much more weight because of its finality. For those who who serve King Jesus, birth is the beginning of life here on earth, a place bound in time, perverted by sin, and oppressed by pain. Death is the beginning of life in eternity, where time, sin, and pain are no more. Death is the final breath in this life before the real breathing begins. A birthday, like the one coming soon for Baby R, changes everything. A deathday changes everything again.
Sometimes when I write the date out on a piece of notepaper, on a cheque, or on the board at school, I think about how certain days have special meaning to me. October 27, February 4, November 4, May 26: birthdays. May 11, May 31, June 29: weddings. November 22, 1998: Baptism. October 24, 2009: University graduation. September 4, 2012: First day of teaching.
I find myself thinking about the date that will be the other bookend of my life. I already know what date will be to the left of that little hyphen on my tombstone; what will be the date on the right? Will it be this year? Will it be tomorrow’s date a decade down the road? Two decades? Five decades? And then I begin to think long and hard about what I want that little dash to represent. What kind of life and legacy do I want my little hyphen to mean?
As I live out my life knowing a deathday is coming, I find myself reevaluating what I value, how I spend my time and money, and the way I treat those around me. The unknown but impending deathday causes a certain level of urgency to rise in my heart. It causes me to think anew on how I seek His kingdom in my life today. And when my life is finished, when there are no more tomorrows, my deathday will signal the beginning of my real reality, the one I will have longed for all my life.
So I live my life, take my numbered breaths, complete the tasks before me with my eyes trained on Christ and the day coming where I will stand before the King of my heart and I see Him as He really is.
What about you? Can you confidently say you know that your deathday will be a day for much celebration because of your faith in Christ’s ability to save you? If you do, does the knowledge that all sin, trials, and pain will fall away give you hope to keep walking in the valley of the shadow of death?
Have hope, friend. Our lives are but a brief hyphen between two bookends: a birthday and a deathday. In the strength of Christ, use yours to love God with all your heart, soul and mind, and to love others more than yourself.
What you’ll find here is a collection of musings, thoughts, writings, and ramblings about things I’m reading, watching, and thinking about. It’s my goal to inspire, encourage, and instruct my fellow sisters in their walk with Jesus and their understanding of the Word.
- Erika Recommends: Best Books of 2021 - December 15, 2021
- Slow-Going in the Fast Lane - October 14, 2021
- A Taste You Can Feel In Your Cheeks - September 29, 2021
