CONTEMPLATING DEATH/LIFE...FOUR GENERATIONS APART

She almost died.  But for immediate, savvy action by her dad, a survivalist and therapist, wee little Charis, faced the end of her life at one year and one week.  Way out on the Aquarius primitive campground in Utah's Boulder Mountain, three family groups had a moment of horror.  Gathered for breakfast someone noticed Charis was struggling, not breathing.  Before panic spread to chaos, dad upended his precious new life by her feet, whacked a couple of times.  Nothing came out, but breathing and serious crying followed.

Breathing and crying are pretty typical human activities.  The former is always a good thing.  The latter?  Well, crying, spelled "whining," is typical, seldom good.  There is pain, crying, gain.  Good thing.  There is sad, hurt, overwhelming-life-stuff crying.  Let's face it, since the Fall, there are mosquitos at Aquarious, vipers in the desert, and "snakes in the grass" of our lives.  But WAIT...crying is a sign of life.

The phone call prompted fears and tears at even the thought of our extraordinarily precious granddaughter, Charis, not being there to greet us at Christmas.  It also prompted deeper thougthts about my own life.  Three days apart, Charis was one and I was 70.  HMMmmm.  She's alive and quite well with the Aquarious incident to remind us how fragil life is.  I go TODAY for a consultation on my prostate cancer.  Second procedure didn't work.  PSA rising slowly.  Matt's not there to upend me and whack me to recovery.

The Last Three of Five Are in the Un-named Generation

Cultural characteristics change about every 20 years.  Academics label them with a tell-tale name.  So, academically, my Traditional Generation (then Boommers, Generation x, then Millennials) is four official cultures sets away from Charis (hers still unnamed until they see what characterizes it, but a return to traditional values and built-in digital savvy is a mixed blessing). 

So what?!

So, prayer is something God likes more than almost anything.  It's talking, relating, enjoying, thanking.  It's worship.  Here's the SO-WHAT:  Pray--worship--with a sense of life's uncertainty, its brevity.  Boy, oh boy is it brevitacious seen from this end.  Thank Him for your life and, yes, the tears you survived.  Pray for a friend.  Include me, if you will (and Carolyn who's most affected...I don't "feel" a thing).  Pray for at least one friend with illness, sadness, or who is missing out on personal salvation and its glory of eternal rescue from both fears and tears.   

[ To enjoy the delights of the Oldest's, Taylor's, Rite of Passage--AND MINE--go to our DIAblog, http://www.gendads.com/ ]