What REALLY Matters
Messenger’s Note: Edwin B. Smith is Pastor of New Freedom Family Ministries in Oxford, Mississippi. He works as a public relations specialist at The University of Mississippi.
My only grandchild is celebrating her first birthday today. Of course, she probably won’t remember it so it (and probably a few more birthdays following this one) won’t have any special meaning for her. If she’s not going to remember it, why celebrate?
Because she doesn’t have to know who she is or what her very presence in the world means at this point in her life. She can’t talk in full sentences yet. She’s still learning how to walk. She hasn’t begun to learn when to let someone know she needs to use the restroom. Her talents have not yet manifested.
No matter. In the 12 months since she arrived on this planet, she has blessed and continues to bless the lives of her parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and even total strangers. Her smile, her slobbery kisses, her hugs, and the way she rests her head on my shoulder when I hold her in my arms are all precious. I lover her and I know, in her own childlike way, she loves me, too.
LOVE. That’s all that really matters in life (or at least it should be). Love is something so hard to define, yet so easy to experience! It doesn’t require an education, social status, money or fame to give and receive love. Everyone can share in its healing power any time, any place, in any circumstances. Thank God for my granddaughter’s life. She almost didn’t make it into this world alive. But she did! So did you, I, and everyone else in the world. Life is short, but it can be rich and enrich the lives of others. Let’s all do our best to live a lifestyle of love so that when we’re gone, other people’s lives will be better for our having lived.
That’s what REALLY matters.
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