They pour into the streets wearing black, go up on the roofs, take to the town square, Everyone in tears, everyone in grief. Isaiah 15:3 (MSG)
I sat on the dock at the lake with both my parents and my teenage children. It was one of those quiet conversations that don't usually happen in the busy rat-race of everyday life, but in the peaceful tranquility of the lake, they just sort of emerge. I asked my parents about some of the things they'd seen and experienced in their lifetime. They talked about the nation-wide celebration when World War II was over when people poured out of their houses to have an impromptu party in the streets. They talked of the day President Kennedy was assassinated and the shock and horror the nation experienced.
I thought of my own journey. I remembered where I was when President Reagan was shot, when the Challenger exploded, then Columbia. I remembered the day when the twin towers fell.
The depth of human tragedy in Isaiah's prophetic messages are easily lost when we don't make connection to our own experience. For the nations he addresses, the threat of impending seiges waged by invading armies was very real. His message was, and is, sobering. While I don't believe there is much to be gained in preoccupation with tomorrow's potential doomsday, I believe there is wisdom in understanding that the blessing I enjoy today is not guaranteed tomorrow.
Today, I'm taking time to be grateful for all with which I am blessed, and to realize that it could all be tragically gone in the twinkling of an eye. I don't want to take God's blessing and provision for granted.