Just a Vapor

Fall is probably my favorite season. I love the cooling temperatures, the beautiful colors, and the anticipation of holidays where families and friends re-connect. And if I'm honest, when I was younger, I even enjoyed the return to school. But unfortunately, the things I love about fall disappear all too quickly - especially when living in North Dakota. The leaves seem to change overnight. The wind strips them of those beautiful leaves in the blink of an eye. This year, as I watched one of our trees change from green to yellow to bare in less than a week's time, I realized how much of a "vapor" life is. 

I don't know about you, but I want to savor each beautiful moment of every day I am gifted with. Sadly, though, we live in a world that thrives on being busy. For some reason, we feel more important when our schedule are booked from before the sun comes up until long after its retired for the night. When everyone around us is running wildly, we feel that we've got to do the same - otherwise, there's something wrong with us. Along the way we may catch glimpses of the beauty around us - the physical beauty of the earth, the joyous beauty of the life of family and friends, even the beauty of stillness - but we hardly pause long enough to enjoy them. We don't stop long enough to simply be. To simply soak in all that is going on around us. 

I don't know about you, but that's not how I want to live my life. That's not how I want to see my son grow up. So, admittedly, there are days I don't get much "done" around the house. There are days when all I do is play with my little man, take him on a walk, snuggle with Zeke for an afternoon nap, and make supper for my husband. But you know what? I've decided that's okay. Because the past 21 weeks have gone fast enough. I know that my life - that Jordan's life - that Zeke's life - is just a vapor. 

"Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away." - James 4:14

I don't know about you, but I want to savor each day I am blessed with. I don't want to live thinking, "Okay, we've just got to get through this phase," or, "Life will just be easier or better when . . ." It's hard to know that that looks like - what it looks like to enjoy every day (even the difficult ones); it's hard to know how we can soak up the vapor that comprises our life. Maybe all it is is stopping. Stopping to thank the Lord - genuinely. Pausing to look around you - to let your eyes soak in the beauty that is around you. Enjoying - not wishing - our lives and days away, hoping for the next "exciting" season of life. 

We already know that life is just a vapor; that life is going to speed on by. So let's do what we can to enjoy it, eh?

"This is the day which the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." - Psalm 118:24