It Goes So Quickly

Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.  Psalm 90:12

A friend sent me a link to the photo montage of his beloved wife which was played at her recent memorial service.  I only met her once or twice, but she was my age, and as the montage began to play it was like watching my own life unfolding.  With music from my era playing in the background, I looked at baby and toddler photographs where everyone was wearing the style of clothing I remember from my childhood.  The elementary school class pictures showcased the classic hairstyles of the times. These were followed by high school yearbook shots of a delightful teen whose exuberance and love of life showed in her wide smile and mischievous eyes.  I knew the year and remembered my own hopes and dreams at that very same time, which seems like such a short while ago.  Next came the photos of a young woman embarking on her adulthood journey; and a gawky young man, the one with whom she would spend the rest of her life, entered the scene.  There were touching wedding shots followed in quick succession by pictures of their children, pets and family life.  And, finally, there were the heartbreakingly poignant pictures of this same beautiful woman, ravaged by cancer, taken at her daughter’s wedding, which had been hastily put together just weeks before her life came to an end.  The impact of watching a whole life, so much like mine, from beginning to end, in the space of a few short minutes, was overwhelming.  I wept.

This week also marks the anniversary of the deaths of two of my very dear friends.  I wept for them as well, and for those they left behind.  I wept for all of their unfulfilled hopes and dreams; for their surprised disappointment that life gave them so little of what they had expected.  I wept for us all.

And I thought about Jesus weeping at the tomb of Lazarus.  People have been puzzled as to why he wept when he was about to bring Lazarus back to life.  I think I understand.  God was experiencing the pain of human existence from the inside out; all of the heartbreak of life's broken promises.  How could he not weep?  The happy ending of a story doesn’t negate the pain of the journey.  He wept with and for us all, then resolutely turned his face toward Jerusalem and died for us, so that one day we could have the life God always wanted us to have; where sorrow and sighing will forever flee away and death will be no more.