The digital photo frame on the night stand beside our bed holds hundreds of photographs. Tonight I glanced at it as several pictures of our grandson, Liam, appeared. Taken the night he was born, they brought back a lot of memories.

Among those memories was the moment Monieca and I received the phone call from our daughter telling us that her water had just broken. We were at the local hospital visiting a member who would later die from cancer. Our visit cut short, we rushed home to take Jacqueline to the hospital.

The contrast of those two scenes, one of a man dying and the other of a baby being born, is the picture of life on earth. It begins and it ends. What we do between those two moments is what matters most.

Birth comes with possibilities. Death makes final what was. Birth comes with hope. Death seals our destiny.

We have no control over our birth and we cannot prevent death. All we control is how we live. So that begs the question, “How are we living?” What are we doing with our life? Perhaps a good way to measure how we’re living is to imagine what people will remember about us once we’re dead.

You once were a baby, like Liam. You are now closer to death, like that man in the hospital. Live your life well because it’s the only one you get.

Pastor Steve Hogg