The average lifespan of people today is anywhere from 75-85.  That’s where I am right now in the racing form of life.  I call it that, because we have no clue when our last breath will be inhaled.  It’s a gamble.  We have no guarantee how long our lives will last, so doesn’t it make sense to make the most of the time we have?  We can squander the precious moments on frivolity.  We might decide there’s nothing on the other side of death, so eat, drink and be merry while we’re here. We might think there’s no purpose for us anymore and simply give up.

When we’re five, our minds are filled with exploration and discovery.  We have no fear.  When we arrive at adolescence, we continue to feel invincible, but our thoughts, often turn inward.  Peer pressure causes us to do things we regret later.  As we progress into young adults, thoughts of our future consumes our thinking.  We start a family, concentrate on providing for them and work becomes central to our thinking.  When we reach the empty nest stage, we realize we haven’t gotten to know the family we worked for in the short span of 18-20 years.  Retirement brings even greater challenges as we try to survive on a meager income and hope we can continue to work to supplement that once a month check.  Then we die.

Sounds pretty morbid, doesn’t it?  This is the way most folks go through life.  There has to be more to it than that.  We don’t just live to die.  Each one of us is part of a bigger blueprint .  We’re pieces of a giant puzzle which is  incomplete when one of its parts is missing.

There’s so much we want to pack into life for other’s as well as our own – that we lose sight of the forest because of the trees.  We allow things to get in the way of the beauty that’s already there.

75-85 years seems a long time when you’re five.  When you’re 75, you wonder where the time went.  No matter what age, all that we do in our allotted time, is a gift.

Christmas is not merely a time for memories, even though traditions can make the holiday seem more important and personal to some.  The beauty of Christmas now is the same as it was in the past, as it is today and as it will be in the future, as long as we remember the reason we celebrate this miraculous birthday.  God’s gift to humanity is not a fleeting thing.  It’s meant to last forever and it does.