The Gift of Life
For the most part, I don’t think people truly appreciate the gift of life. I often use the analogy of not seeing the forest because you are standing in the middle of the trees. This analogy is perfect when it comes to our view of life. While we are going through it we hardly acknowledge that we are in the middle of the most incredible happening in all of natural existence. In order to see life, you would need clear your mind for a while until you began to see just how truly sparkling and effervescent life is all around you. It engulfs your entire being because you become what you are in. You are part of the fabric that makes the entirety of life. You are in the picture that is being viewed. Life permeates through your being just as your being, permeates through life. You are a part of it and it is literally a part you. From a spiritual and even an intellectual sense this is the most astonishing thing the mind could ever grasp while it is happening.
Think about it: You are a part of the earth. You breathe the oxygen that is produced by the trees. The trees assimilate the CO2 that we exhale. We eat of the plants, fruit, nuts, and animals that eat other food sources on earth so our flesh becomes what earth is made of. I suppose that explains the phrase; “from ashes to ashes, and from dust to dust.” We eat fish of the sea; the fish eat plants of the ocean so the ocean is part of what we are made of. The cows, hogs, and chickens and other flesh animals that we eat, they eat of the earth that we live on so we are also the earth. This entire thing called life is more of one thing than we might realize… it is all mixed in together.
It appears that everything here on earth is a part of the very ground that helps us sustain life on earth, which is itself a part of our living being. The only thing that makes us unique is the fact that we have a soul and spirit along with the superior capacity of thought and reasoning over other animal life. Without our superior mental capacity, many of the other animals of this planet would be superior to us in many ways. They truly know how to live as one with nature they live amongst. Could you survive like a lone wolf in the wilderness or a lion cub in the middle of other vicious animals in the jungle? Try being a tiny fish in the middle of the vast ocean? They don’t think or reason like us.
We are here consciously alive yet we barely recognize what it means to be alive until our lives are threatened. We see death around us daily through the news or through those who are close to us. Only then do we morn the loss of life that was so precious to us when it was with us all along. There were so many moments of being with them that you took for granted, not fully realizing just how precious each moment really is or was.
You are alive and living right in this present moment as you are reading this article. Right now precious moments are passing with each tick of the clock that you will never get back again. They are forever gone already into the ethos of time. Do we not realize that every moment of our natural lives has a certain count? When the count has reached its limited capacity you will no longer be in this life. You will cease to be a part of this fabric of which you are a part of and that is a part of you. That part will return to dust and leave only temporary memories in the lives of those that shared time and love with you while present. Each moment is as precious as the most valuable commodity on earth.
Life and time seem to be connected to each other because at one moment you are in time and in another, you are out of it. Time opened up a vortex that allowed you to be present but the same vortex will close when you depart. What does it all mean! You were born and had very little conscious awareness of being in the thick of life. You grow through infancy and adolescence just trying to get your bearings and figure out what and how life works. From your late teens through early adulthood you face another adjustment stage trying to figure out how to successfully fit into your surroundings. If you get married or share a life with a mate that soaks up the fleeting and precious moments of your life: If you have kids of your own that becomes the focus of life: If you have a job or a career that takes you through large batches of time. Before you know it half a century has passed and all you can grasp are the memories of a life that has almost passed by without any true appreciation of living in each precious moment.
The gift of life is such a precious gift and we barely know that we are in it until after it is almost gone. I can personally count three scores and ten years of living but when I look back I wonder where did all that time go… why did it pass by so fast? I wish I could re-live those precious moments that gathered like snowdrifts from a winter storm of years past… it melted into the ethos of time that will never, ever come back again.
I can remember about twenty years ago when I started this soul search to find God and the meaning of life. Suddenly my soul appeared to have come alive in me and brought to my attention this thing that we were experiencing. I would sit in a chair in my back yard and look at life and see so many things that I hardly ever paid attention to before. I looked at the ground and saw all sorts of crawling creatures going about their business doing the things necessary to sustain and perpetuate their existence. I would look up to the sky and see scores of flying creatures doing the same. I actually saw them, heard them and followed them with the attention of my eyes. It was like being in a drug hallucination episode, but I wasn’t high on anything but life itself. I could see it, feel it, hear it, smell it and even taste the air that was coming in through my nostrils.
To this day I can still see those moments that I was living in back then. It was as though my soul came alive and wanted to show me where we were. I remember calling that experience “the grand awakening of my soul.” It was from that awakening I started paying more attention and writing about the things that we are experiencing. Most are not acutely aware of actually going through a living and breathing entity that has consequential significance. Until you experience an awakening, life will be nearly over before you realize that there was something you were supposed to be doing, which is the reason why time opened a vortex and allowed you to come in to participate in this show.
I haven’t even had the chance to speak about the Author of life itself yet. Time did not miraculously open a door allowing us into this grand opportunity by itself. Time has a master… it only operates as its’ Master allows. It was God that woke up my soul years ago and alerted me that I was in the middle of something that I needed to start giving my attention. I was already in school enrolled in a master’s class and didn’t realize it.
Before my awakening, I had no idea that I was supposed to be doing something. I was supposed to be paying attention to the class of life and learning something for future references. Life wasn’t insignificant but the opposite! We are here for a reason. Life has a very definite meaning and purpose. You are in God’s classroom and should be paying attention so you gain from the many lessons your Teacher has prepared for you.
Until you become like one of the little ones you probably will not be able to grasp what I just mentioned. This message might sound like the ravings of a diluted person high on something. Little children usually haven’t yet clouded their minds with so much stuff to the point that they no longer see life as it presents itself right in front of their faces. They actually see things and ask their guardian silly little questions about what they are seeing. Unfortunately, parents will usually brush them off because questions about life sound silly to an adult with a clouded mind. They no longer see life while living in it. They see what they hope for tomorrow; or what they are suffering from today, or regret what they did not do yesterday. With all that stuff on the brain, you cannot see life right here and right now. It will be gone into the ethos of time never to return. One day you might wake up and wonder where did all that time go?
For some of you, this article will be an awakening of your soul. I warn you that it might be like an accumulation of a winter’s snowdrift from years past. Those days are forever gone yet life is still here for the moment. As long as you are alive each fleeting moment is precious, even the ones passing by right now as you are reading this article. Wake up and go tell your loved ones just how much you appreciate them before you’re gone!
Take a deep breath and feel life as it flows through your body. Savor the food you eat because the earth made it possible for you to enjoy. Be nice to the planet that produces things for you to consume. The trees are your friends that provide oxygen for you to breathe. The animals you consume, the birds that gather things, the large and tiny insects that do things; and mostly the people that you encounter are not here by chance. God sits and watches over all in His creation. He watches and waits on you to wake up and start learning. You are already in His class… In the end there will be a test. Life itself is the test but the final score is being tabulated even as you live and breathe. The question becomes, did you get it! Will God say, “job well done my child!” If your soul is still sleepwalking how could you know? I remember years ago thanking God for providing me with the antidote to my soul-sleeping disorder.
You are alive! Life is a very precious gift! It will not be here for very long so take advantage of each moment and savor it because it will all be over before you realize you were here. The gift of life is a gift from Almighty God who is watching over His creations and tallying the scores. If you do not realize that you are in the game then how could you know how to participate in the game you are currently playing. Wake up and ask the One that granted you life and being. Time has opened this vortex just for you but it will only obey its divine Master.
Oddly I realize that in a flashing moment I will be outside of this vortex of time looking back through eternity long before most of you realized that I existed. I was awakened at this moment just to provide others with the opportunity to awaken in their moment. Again… you are alive and life is so very precious. Love one another… love the One that granted you life and being. Know that you are here for a reason with divine purposes so get about finding and fulfilling your soul assignments… get it done before it is over. God loves you… Wake up and smell His roses… Love the Lord Thy God and Love one another just as your God loves you… Selah!
