For the last time?

Today I have been washing up my old lego and duplo – we collected it from my parents’ attic and are getting it ready for when our son is old enough to play with it.  We’re still some way off that time, but it is exciting to think of him playing with the toys I had, and it was fun to think back on the good times my sisters and I had with them.

But as I cleaned them, I also had a more sombre thought – I suspect my parents didn’t realise that the last time we packed away those toys was indeed the last time.  I suspect they loaded the toys into the box thinking that at some point in the next few days we’d get them out again and play with them.  However, time passed and we “outgrew” those particular toys.  We moved onto other things, and soon toys became computers and phones, SATs became GCSEs, A Levels and then finals, and before they knew it we were moving out, getting jobs and then careers, getting married, and now producing a grandchild.

What I’m getting at is that we often don’t know when something will be the last time.  Today I took a photo of my son with his card saying “today I sat up for the first time”.  Firsts are celebrated and noted, but lasts creep up, and in many cases it’s only later that we recognise them.  The obvious message from this is that we don’t know when things will end, and so we should make the most of them.  We should engross ourselves in the things and people we love and ensure we make memories to keep us going when something passes.

As  we head towards Easter, travelling through the very challenging week that is Holy Week, it strikes me that there is also a message here for us as Christians.  The day we meet Jesus is not known to any of us.  We don’t know when we will have our last opportunity to do something that honours Him, to tell someone about our love for Him, or to do something we hope will make Him proud.  The disciples should have known what was going to take place that first Easter, in that Jesus was telling them pretty plainly, but even they didn’t get it.  How much more are we not getting??

I think we need to accept our ignorance and our confusion.  We don’t need answers to the questions of “when” or “how” in order to live for Jesus.  Instead we need to do as we are told!  We  have many opportunities to live in a way that will make Him proud.  We’re not going to spot all of them, but it seems highly unlikely that we’re going to notice our last chance.  So it seems to me (and I will caveat this by saying I am all too aware of how often I fail at it) that we need to go for every chance, just in case we don’t get another!  If there is something we can do to bring a little of God’s love into the life of another person, surely we have a responsibility to do so?

Like Christmas, Easter for me is swept up in church traditions and spending time with friends and family.  But this year I’m determined to try to make it about a little more than that.  This year I want to spot the opportunities to spend Easter in a way that would make Jesus proud of me, and that goes some small way to honouring the incredible sacrifice He made.  My most wonderful best friend has an amazing gift for doing just this – she spots chances to brighten a day and to bring the love of God in simple and beautiful ways into the lives of people she knows, and of people she doesn’t know.  She doesn’t put off or sidestep opportunities but leaps forward, all for Jesus.  When she experiences God’s love, she makes sure she passes that on to others.  So, will you join me in trying to be more like that this Easter?