That Moment in Time by Petra Pierre - Robertson

 

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.  Ecclesiastes 3:1

He came to me flexing his muscles. He loved how his muscles looked. "I want it to stay just like this," he proudly affirmed, "I am not doing anything to it again...." He wanted his muscles to remain fixed as it was in that moment in time.

I laughed.  But it was a wry laugh as I reminisced on moments in time that I wished I could hold on to forever. Have you ever experienced such a moment? That defining moment you wanted to last forever?

Precious memories

A good childhood memory

An awesome success

A fantastic holiday

A reunion

A feeling of security in a relationship

Last moments before an impending farewell

Regardless of how you savour , try to capture, or hold on to a defining moment, however, the moment just doesn't last forever.  It passes and becomes a memory on the path of life. I laid the hard fact on him. “Boy, enjoy it while it lasts. It doesn’t last forever.” The look he cast my way said, “..killjoy..." 

Memories on the path of life

Such is life. Despite the care, attention and maintenance applied, the vagaries of life nevertheless incessantly chip away at us, physically, mentally, emotionally and sometimes spiritually.  If only we could avoid the pull of the tide of time;  the constant ebb and flow, eroding and chipping away until all that we are left with are  haloed memories triggered by nostalgia. 

So, today 2/2/22 is my birthday. But as nice as birthdays are, they also serve as grim reminders of the tenuous hold we have on time; annual indicators of a depreciating life. If in this life only we have hope we are of all men most miserable (1 Corinthians 15:19).  

But, thankfully, there is good news. There is hope beyond this life. That ultimate hope gives our life purpose and meaning. It causes us to live in anticipation of that one moment in time, which will appreciate the value of our life into eternity, rather than depreciate it into nothingness and death. As much as the celebration of our first birth is nice, it is the second birth (John 3:3), which guarantees that moment in time which will last forever; eternal life in a land where we will never grow old, never depreciate, and our muscles will never flop!

Teach us to number our days

Instead of trying to hold on to nostalgic haloes of defining moments in time, may we allow the Lord to teach us to number our days (Psalm 90;12), so we may apply wisdom in the present, to enjoy moments in time that perpetuate into eternity.