Summer Snippet 2: We can’t get a day back.

Our lives are like water spilled out on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. (portion of 2 Samuel 14:14)

I read this visual phrase  a few weeks ago. It’s tucked so neatly into 2 Samuel 14:14 but jumped off the page. I can’t get it out of my mind. I keep imagining pouring water into the sun-baked summer ground in Georgia and watching it disappear, leaving only a water stain that quickly evaporates. There is no way to get the water back. In the same way…

Once a day is lived, it is gone.

Gone. Can’t live it again. Can’t go back and improve it. It’s as gone as water poured out, unable to be retrieved again.

Like many people, my morning includes things like making coffee, taking medicine and feeding the dog, but I also pick up a dry erase marker and cross off the previous day on a magnetic calendar that clings to the side of my refrigerator.

That day has been lived.

I have been so struck by the visual of water being poured out that I have started to pray while I do my crossing out. On Thursday morning of this week, I prayed the following as I crossed out Wednesday:  “Lord, thank you for June 12, 2019.” Then I looked at Thursday and prayed, “I look forward to today, June 13, 2019. I haven’t gotten to live this day before! May I live it well and may it count for eternity.”

Now let’s look at the entire verse: All of us must die eventually. Our lives are like water spilled out on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. But God does not just sweep life away; instead, he devises ways to bring us back when we have been separated from him.
(2 Samuel 14:14)

Though our days are spilled into the ground never to be retrieved again, they are still captured into God’s hands and swept up into His Story of grace and salvation for the world.

In His hands, each day gains the ability to last longer.

I have loved this new practice and wanted to share it as the summer days blur together. May we pour out each of our days into His hands so that the ripple effects of how we live last forever.

Picture Explanation: Our magnetic calendars. They really work for our family. How about that Braves game on Wednesday night that was won in extra innings? How about the final game of the basketball championship this Thursday night? Most intense and closely played NBA Finals I can personally remember. Congratulations, Raptors. My heart goes out to Keven Durant and Klay Thompson of the Warriors. Your injuries were our injuries. It hurt watching. Get well.

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