Remember

I couldn't make it stop It felt like a hot knife stabbing me in my chest. I thought,"I just need to get my mind off of it." so I tried exercising,bad idea. My husband suggested I lie down and rest ,that didn't work. My daughter called and asked if I could take my granddaughter to ballet. "Ah', I thought,' cuteness will be the cure!"

Driving home from ballet I could hardly breathe the fire in my chest made it difficult to drive. When I finally arrived at my daughter's home I could barely get the words out,"Take me to the hospital!" I spent the next day having tests done. My sister said,"Sarah, maybe God has a message for you in this."

When I got home I looked in my One Year Bible to see what the Scripture was for the day I spent in the hospital. This is what I read:

 My heart grew hot within  me,
 and as I meditated, the fire burned;
 then I spoke with my tongue:

"Show me, O Lord, my life's end
 and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting is my life.
You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Each man's life is but a breath. Selah

Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro:
He bustles about, but only in vain;
he heaps up wealth,not knowing
who will get it.
Psalm 39: 3-6

I thought about these verses for several days then I decided I was making way to much out of my experience. Thats when the word came to me,"Remember". "Remember what?", I thought. I sat there trying to think of what I should remember and then I knew.

Several Summers ago I had been coming out of the grocery store when I noticed a man lying under his car. I got to the car at the same time his wife did. She screamed and began shaking him violently. I asked if  I could hold his head for her.

When I slipped my arms under him I realized he was dying. I bent down and whispered,"Jesus, is near." He took a last shuddering breath and died. I stayed with his wife until her family arrived. I found out he was in this late forties, this was to have been his last stop and then they were going on vacation.

I sat there remembering what it was like to be holding a man while he took his last breath. I prayed,"Show me, O Lord, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.