I originally received this from that nameless someone back in March of 2000. Thinking back, that was less than two years after my father had passed away so suddenly from Stage IV pancreatic cancer. It was roughly a year after my youngest son was born. I was in a period of re-evaluation, quickly approaching mid-life crisis, and unbeknownst to me, approaching the greatest crises of my life. But, at the time, I thought I couldn't feel so much pain, loss, remorse, emptiness as when my dad died.
The words to follow made me revisit how short life is. How thankful and fortunate I was for being able to sit at his feet while he passed into the Light. How very much I would miss him, his wisdom, his calm and cool analysis of any problem, his humor, his knowledge, his life.
It made me reflect on all the times I had taken for granted his presence in my life before that fateful day when we got the news of his mortality. It shot me back to when he had his massive heart attack ten years earlier and how I spent an entire plane ride from New York to California balling my eyes out at the prospect of losing him. Thank God I had ten more years with him: to tell him I loved him everytime I hung up the phone because if it was the last time I ever talked to him, I wanted him to know that I did love him. I didn't want him to die wondering or not having heard my words. This translated to how I treated my children, particularly as they have grown and matured. I don't let a phone call pass without telling them I love them at some point. I don't let the sun set without a kind word or a hug to let them know how happy I am that they are in my life.
It set me to thinking about how we get so caught up in our daily lives. This was before Facebook and iPods, and many gadgets big and small created and used in a way to suck out, chew up, and spit out much of the personal interactions that make us human. It set me to thinking about how we let our daily problems consume us to the point that we forget about that Godly connection to each other that is critical to experiencing Jesus' love in our daily lives. That love and acceptance comes from each other, not from Facebook time or how many songs you can load on your 8000 Gig iPod.
If tomorrow never comes, make sure that you have put down your iPod, your TV or game controller, logged out of Facebook or LinkedIn and told, better yet, shown the special people in your life that you value and love them. Make every moment with them an image of what you would want your last moment with them to be; the last memory that you would want them to carry with them of their time with you.
IF TOMORROW NEVER COMES
If I knew it would be the last time that I'd see you fall asleep, I would tuck you in more tightly and pray the Lord, your soul to keep.
If I knew it would be the last time that I see you walk out the door, I would give you a hug and kiss and call you back for one more.
If I knew it would be the last time I'd hear your voice lifted up in praise, I would video tape each action and word, so I could play them back day after day.
If I knew it would be the last time, I could spare an extra minute or two to stop and say "I love you," instead of assuming, you would KNOW I do.
If I knew it would be the last time I would be there to share your day, well I'm sure you'll have so many more, so I can let just this one slip away. For surely there's always tomorrow to make up for an oversight, and we always get a second chance to make everything right. There will always be another day to say our "I love you' s", And certainly there's another chance to say our "Anything I can do's?"
But just in case I might be wrong, and today is all I get, I'd like to say how much I love you and I hope we never forget. Tomorrow is not promised to anyone, young or old alike. And today may be the last chance you get to hold your loved one tight.
So if you're waiting for tomorrow, why not do it today? For if tomorrow never comes, you'll surely regret the day, that you didn't take that extra time for a smile, a hug, or a kiss and you were too busy to grant someone, what turned out to be their one last wish.
So hold your loved ones close today, whisper in their ear. Tell them how much you love them and that you'll always hold them dear. Take time to say "I'm sorry," "please forgive me," "thank you" or "it's okay".
And if tomorrow never comes, you'll have no regrets about today.
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