Eternity within seconds

"Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away." Psalms 144:4

Growing up, my sisters and I had to take turns washing dishes...one cleaned the table, one washed the dishes, and the other dried and put up the dishes. This one chore was just the LONGEST 10 minutes of my teenage life! And I dreaded that 10 minutes, too. Now, oh I would give to be able to wash my dishes in 10 minutes!

We so often feel like time is eternity in a short period...waiting for the arrival of your child, waiting for your loved ones to finish up in the bathroom, waiting til you can get off work, or even waiting in the drive-thru to pick up your meals. When that single moment finally arrives, we look back and notice that time was only but for a few minutes...or 9 months! And just like the arrival of that baby, the world as you know it has changed.

February 23, 2018...I experienced eternity within seconds, and then, my world was changed. I was fixing to leave my house at 6:00 that morning to take my mother-in-law to be with her daughter as she went through thyroid cancer surgery. Around 6:45 that morning, while driving through Durham, another car came from in-between the bushes and hit my car on the passenger side. My flipped over the guard rail and landed in the median. It was the most horrific event I have ever experienced. I was totally aware of everything that had just happened...some days I can still feel every movement of that car accident. When my car stopped and I breathed a sigh of relief, I noticed I could move...nothing seemed off. So, I took off my seatbelt and was going to make an attempt to get out of my car. The very moment I moved my seatbelt into place by the door was the very moment my world changed. My left arm was gone...laying in the road up ahead. Sadly, my mother-in-law did not survive the accident.

In loving memory of my sweet mother-in-law, Frances Spain Moseley

I want to take a moment to talk about that moment...eternity seconds. I remember asking the gentlemen who came to my rescue quickly before the paramedics arrived just how long did my car accident take. His reply...just a few seconds. Those words just kept pressing on me. It really felt like eternity...like time had stood still, but in reality, it was just a few seconds. The other day, my 4-year-old daughter came running into the living room crying. She had just realized that I almost died in this car accident, and it scared her. After a few moments of explaining (the best way I could to a 4-year-old) life and death, my thoughts were taken back to James 4:14.

"Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."

From God's view, our lives are eternities in seconds. 70-80-90 years on this earth seems like a long time, but it's just a matter of seconds. Just think, I have only but a few seconds to live a life that brings honor and glory to God. In those same few eternity seconds, God wants to have a personal relationship with you and me. So often, I find myself getting so caught up in all the different avenues I am travelling in my life that I forget to spend time with the Lord. Sometimes...actually more times than I really want to own up to...I let the phantom pains interfere with my relationship with Christ. Of course, He reminds me each time of II Corinthians 4:17.

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;”

See! That verse right there makes me shout for joy. My phantom pains are just eternity seconds!

My question for you is...how are you spending your eternity seconds?