Devotions with Pastor Bill

Scripture speaks clearly about the brevity of our lives and the need to allow the Holy Spirit to bring guidance and empowerment into them.  James 4:14-15 is one of my personal favorites.
 
“. . . yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’”

When we lived in Southern California, we visited my sister in the Redwood country of Northern California.  Her home was surrounded by fairly young Redwood trees, maybe a couple hundred years old. The trees were pretty tall, but still very slender as Redwoods go. Redwoods are interesting in that too much water will kill them.  They thrive better in areas that have little rain, but frequent foggy conditions, and they also help produce the fog that nurtures and nourishes them. 

As I was enjoying the sunrise on the deck of my sister’s house, I noticed a wisp of fog in the upper branches of a nearby Redwood. As I watched, the wisp actually increased in size and began to rise higher as the day was warming.  When the wisp reached the top of the tree and was exposed directly to the sun, it just disappeared. 

Please understand that the whole experience I witnessed took less time to happen than it has taken for me to tell you about it.  The Holy Spirit brings this back to my mind periodically for different reasons but most often to remind me how truly brief our lives are.  As we are reminded in Ephesians 4:16, we must “…make the most of every opportunity…”
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Shalom,
Pastor Bill