Snow in April

Untimely.

We didn't expect it. It was inopportune, inconvenient, inappropriate, unseasonable. All those "not" prefixes.

Someone I know was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, late stage. I keep thinking about his response, "I'm so disappointed." He had plans for the future, more he wanted to do with his life. Hopes are now dashed.

These shockers are not our plans. We have our own expectations. When you are young, you really believe you have control over the events of your life. As you get older, your foundations are shaken and you realize how helpless you really are to avert disaster and disease. So do we live our lives in fear?

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die;

A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal;

A time to break down, and a time to build up;

A a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

A time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to seek, and a time to lose;

A time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to tear, and a time to sew;

A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate;

A time for war, and a time for peace.

"I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart...there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man." (Ecclesiastes 3)

Enjoy God's gift of life. Only he knows the number of our days.