Well, hello there! So great to have you join us for THE FINAL FIVE MINUTE FRIDAY OF 2016!!
How did that happen?!?
I feel bad that I didn’t give you guys advance warning, but it totally snuck up on me. 🙂
As usual, I’ll be taking a two week break from Five Minute Friday over Christmas and New Year’s … BUT we have two special edition link-ups during those weeks, so be sure to come join the fun!
Here’s the plan for the coming weeks:
This week’s Five Minute Friday prompt is:
[Tweet “Join Five Minute Friday as we write for five minutes on the prompt, NOW.”]
Here we go! 3 … 2 … 1 … BEGIN!
So here we are in the twilight hours of another year and the cusp of a brand new one. The calendar reminds me that it’s time to reflect, time to look back, time to look forward. It’s time to be grateful for days gone by and gaze with sparkly eyes at the limitless possibilities that lie ahead.
But for all my retrospective pondering and my future goal setting, I can’t help but feel the stark awareness that I hold neither the future nor the past in my hand. All I have is this moment, right here as I’m typing next to the string of twinkling Christmas lights with decades old ornaments.
There is no promise of tomorrow or next week, or next month.
Less than thirty minutes ago, a dear friend told me that her dad got bad news today — news of the worst kind. Cancer. Everywhere.
Another man in our church has the same awful diagnosis. He’s peering over the edge into eternity. He knows he’s in God’s waiting room, just hanging out until the King of Kings swings the door open wide.
These men know they’re close — and so are we.
We’re but a breath away from meeting the One of whom we sing, the One born in a manger.
Today is the day of salvation.
Come, Lord Jesus. Come.
***
Thank you, dear ones, for being part of the Five Minute Friday community! Your presence here blesses me more than you know. I wish you and your loved ones a blessed Christmas — see you back here for the first Five Minute Friday of 2017 on January 6th!
And in the meantime, don’t forget to join these special edition linkups:
December 21st: Top Posts of 2016
December 28th: Books I Read in 2016
Blessings to you, friends!
[Tweet “Got five minutes? Come write with us! The prompt is: NOW”]
Join the link-up here:
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I’ll pray for both of these men, Kate. And for your heart; the pain shows through your words.
I found a nice quote by Moshe Dayan…”There is no elsewhere.” Though he said it specifically about a decisive battle in the Yom Kippur War of 1973, meaning that there was no ‘elsewhere’ where loss could be made up, it has, I think, a broader resonance.
Here and now is what we have, and it’s where we’ve been placed. Whatever our situation, it’s deserving of our best efforts.
nGikufisela uKhisimusi oMuhle! (Hope I got that right…been a few years since I used Zulu.)
Kate, such a poignant post. My first thoughts for my post went in a similar direction. We’ve lost family and friends this year. And truly, we don’t know the number of our days. Now truly is all we have. May we live each of our moments well, making the most of our now.
I’m so sorry for the news these men received. I’ll say a prayer for them tonight.
May you have a wonderful Christmas!! Mele Kalikimaka (Hawaiian–following after Andrew’s foreign language Christmas wish…. 😉 ).
The word NOW evokes urgency. AND, it is a word the Lord keeps speaking to me this week. Now is the time. 2017 is the NOW. Speak Truth. Speak The Word, only The Word. NO ear-tickling. NOW.
Yes, Lord.
Oh, Come, Lord Jesus. Praying this with you over so much, so many, and such an earthly weight. His burden is light and freedom.
My heart breaks for those who have a cancer diagnosis shadowing their life or their family. May God grant you the wisdom to come alongside those in need (both the patients and the family that takes care of them).
Thanks for this post, Kate. Yes, the year has flown by–and whether we have a diagnosis that is cutting things shorter than WE thought, God has ordained the number of our days. (Which gives me comfort as my mom lies in a hospital bed tonight having had a possible stroke or heart attack, and my husband and son are heading out at 4 am to a wrestling tournament 2 1/2 hours away–in the midst of a freezing rain whether advisory!)
I pray that you find joy in the midst of all the feelings of the holidays!
Blessings,
Selena
That gave me the chills. Especially the ending. So beautiful! I am late but better late than never. http://bellesbazaar-heather.blogspot.com/2017/01/now-5-minute-prompt.html