I am often taken for granted...

WHAT am I? I am happening in the background for each and every person.

I can be expressed very differently by everyone.

I am not really reported on unless I am going badly for somebody or I have ended for a significant person.

I am often taken for granted, yet without me, you wouldn’t be here to take me for granted. I am… Life. In the world that we live in there are a million-andone things to think about, be concerned about, deal with, fight for, wait for and hope for.

There is so much going on that we can find that our head space is maxed out and our time is taken up. It is not often that, amidst all of these things, we take time just to think about and appreciate life.

That is the simple but important purpose of this article; to take a moment out of all that is going on and to be appreciative of life.

Some weeks ago, my wife and I were thrilled to find out that about nine months from that day we would be accompanied by a little person full of life.

From that day until now, at 34 weeks pregnant, it has been increasingly amazing to think about the fact that a life is being formed and a person is being intricately knitted together in the womb.

I cannot yet speak from experience, but I should imagine that when you are finally greeted by this tiny person who you have been waiting to meet for nine months, the life expressed in that baby is the most precious, delicate and beautiful thing you could possibly comprehend.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could today view our own lives and the lives of those around us in a similar way? Wouldn’t it be great if we reminded ourselves afresh that life is precious, delicate and beautiful and should be lived to the full?

That thought, I believe, was close to Jesus’ heart when He said that He came that people may have life, and have it to the full.

I would like to encourage us to be those who appreciate how valuable life is and live it to the full in light of this.

Some of us may even like to pray that Jesus, the giver of life, will help us to do this.

Simple but powerful.