Let’s not rue the past or dread future, but live for today

Mom stood quietly, flowers in hand, staring down at my grandmother’s grave.

Every spring, a few days before Mother’s Day, my mom has driven the two or three miles from her home in Puyallup, Wash., to a tidy cemetery near the river, honoring her own mother with flowers cut from lilacs they once tended together.

On this day, she glanced up at me now and again, her silent gaze declaring what was plain to us both: Some memories are best shared without words.

So we stood there, together, Mom sporting a blue knit cap – armament against a chilly spring wind and the crueler assault of chemotherapy.

Cancer has made this Mother’s Day seem different to me.

It’s got me thinking about the importance of living in the moment, refusing to let the usual obsession with what must get done rob me of the enjoyment of today. We get today just once, you know, and there is much to be savored while we live it.

The Bible declares a simple truth: God “has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 – NKJV).

Our gracious God has blessed us with seasons in life, each to be cherished for what it is – fully lived out and experienced, not spent thoughtlessly. Yet we have this tendency to lose today in the fog of relishing yesteryear, or dreading what might be ahead.

I believe we come by this tendency honestly; our ancestors did the same thing.

On the coffee table in my parents’ house there is a magazine devoted to all things past. It celebrates the “good old days” when life’s vivid colors could only be captured on black-and-white film.

In those pictures – taken during what many would call America’s golden years – not too many people are smiling. Even then, it seems, folks struggled to live joyfully in the moment.

In the Psalms, the Bible’s hymnal of thanksgiving, we read over and over again of the rightness of living today with gratitude. Yes, we do well to give thanks for past blessings, and trust God for the future, but true gratefulness also cherishes today.

Psalm 118 says: “This is the day that the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24 – NKJV).

How easy it is to forget, or at least grow underwhelmed, by today’s blessings.

In Genesis, God gives us the account of his grand act of creating this universe, our world and all of its wonders. Following creation, the Bible reminds us, “… God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:25 – NKJV).

When God created Adam and Eve, he gave us the blessing of human relationships, along with mankind’s ability to know and worship his maker: “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good” (Genesis 1:31 – NKJV).

Could it be that God established a pattern for us in declaring the goodness of each day?

As I left the cemetery, I squeezed my mother’s hand, still not speaking. I know she is saddened to remember days long past. She is understandably anxious about the future. Cancer does that.

Yet the lilacs that match her snug knit cap exude a heavenly fragrance that must be treasured today.

This Mother’s Day, I hope to really celebrate, cherishing time with the beautiful mother of my own children, savoring them for who they really are: gifts from God.

However we mark the day, it will be the only one like it in our lifetime.

I guess lately I’m finding more resolve to really live today while I’ve got it.

Care to join me?