Our days on earth are like grass; like wildflowers, we bloom and die. The wind blows, and we are gone— as though we had never been here. But the love of the Lord remains forever with those who fear him.

Psalm 103:15-17a

Dear God, I don’t think there are many people who ever get comfortable with the idea of this passage. Because it only happens once to us and it’s so final (and we have very few reports as to what the experience is like after having gone through it, the idea of our death is daunting and scary. We avoid it with everything we have. And now our technology has made it so that we have moral questions to face about quality of life and keeping someone alive artificially. Those are questions we didn’t have to ask 100 years ago.

My wife and I updated our wills and powers of attorney just last week. I’ll admit that I really struggled with the documents that addressed life support and resuscitation. It was and is really hard for me to know how to make a decision now about something that could happen in any number of ways in the future.

But the psalmist reminds me here that my life is short, but my access to your love is forever. And it’s okay for my life to be short (in relation to all of time) and finite. I can be at peace with whatever the length of my life is because, in the grand scheme of things, it is a rounding error compared with your eternity.

Father, help me to be responsible to use the days you have given me for whatever purposes you have for me. I know I’m going to miss opportunities, but please be with me and guide me into kissing as few as possible. I really don’t want to waste any of the days you have for me here on earth.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen