Treasure This Moment

Every day of 2016, I opened my eyes to a new morning and God's Spirit whispered, "Treasure this."

He did not say why, but I sensed a preparing in my heart. I felt a whisper of change boiling in my future, like storm-clouds brewing just beyond sight. Whether weeks or years away, this change would alter the life I had built.

"Treasure this."

I don't know how to explain it adequately. It was like I sheltered in Noah's ark and everything around me completely altered while I remained protected from the winds and pummeling waves.

My whole life changed.

And I asked the question again: Was it worth investing so much in life as it had been, when it was all gone so easily, so quickly? Was it worth loving it so hard this last year?

The answer was the same.

Treasure even this.

And I saw that I wasn't treasuring just my life. I was treasuring my Life, with a capital L, the Person who made every second so, so worth living for.

He is my Life.

I am not sorry I loved so deeply, gave so generously, invested so much time in these ephemeral things. They were gifts. And though many of them are gone now, and an era of my life has closed, I have lost nothing.

My God is wrapping me around with the treasure of His protection and the promise of a certain future, even as the storm continues.

I treasure this Life.

When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
For I will be with thee thy trouble to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.