The Band Is Playing

Today is cold and wet, a repeat of several days we have experienced this winter. I sit here thinking and writing, praying I’ll submit something entertaining and worth the time it takes to read it. This sort of weather awakens memories of past winters being experienced by our fellow northern citizens this very winter. I can testify to dealing with snow-fall shoulder deep to a giraffe and using so many no school bad weather days it was the end of June before we were out of school for summer vacation. Well, Uncle Sam moved me out of that region of the U.S. in 1969 depositing me in South Texas where I discovered there was actually somewhere in the world it didn’t snow. I stayed! Call me Yankee if it makes you feel better, but my message is, “Y’all can keep your snow!” Once in forty something years snow has fallen and accumulated to a little over a foot deep, reviving my primal instincts of dealing with it, but oh so happy to see it melting and gone in two days. Been there; Done that; Got the hat; Ain’t going back.

Here is an excerpt from a speech given by former First Lady Barbara Bush at Kennebunk High School in Maine. “We get on board that train at birth, and we want to cross the continent because we have in mind that somewhere out there is a station. We pass by sleepy little towns looking out the windows of life’s train, grain fields and silos, level grade crossings, buses full of people on the road beside us. We pass by cities and factories, but we don’t look at any of it because we want to get to the station. We believe that out there is a station where a band is playing and banners are hung and flags are waving, and when we get there that will be life’s destination. We don’t really get to know anybody on the train. We pace up and down the aisles looking at our watches eager to get to the station because we know life has a station for us. The station changes for us during life. To begin with, for most of us, it’s turning 18, getting out of high school. Then the station is that first promotion and then the station becomes getting the kids out of college, and then the station becomes retirement and then – all too late we recognize the truth – that this side of that city whose builder is God, there really isn’t a station. The joy is in the journey and the journey is the joy. Sooner or later you realize there is no station and the truth of life is the trip. Read a book; eat more ice cream; go barefoot more often; hug a child; go fishing; laugh more. The station will come soon enough. And as you go, find a way to make this world more beautiful.”

[Psalm 30; Psalm 121; Psalm 118] “…his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” “…the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and for evermore.” “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” There’s nothing wrong with striving for something in life, but it’s easy to get caught up in trying to reach some milestone. We could become guilty of missing God’s will for our lives by our pursuit of happiness so we need to be careful to not let those pursuits interfere with or override what God wants for us, and from us, as we journey through life. Remember that today is all we really have (James 4:13-16) and we are where we are because the Lord has led us here to serve in His name. It’s His train and he’s the engineer. He switches the tracks and the cars at will for our own good. I’m looking for that station where the band is playing and banners are waving, welcoming me home in glory (Psalm 116:15).