Firsts and lasts....

Lasts and firsts.....

Two years ago, my husband had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. He had surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible, recovered quickly, no pain, but radiation and chemo to go through, still not pain.  We had thanksgiving dinner with some longtime friends, their family and  grandchildren.  Our Last thanksgiving....
Later, we celebrated our last Christmas, our last anniversary , our last Easter .....lasts.....so precious.....so meaningful....so ........last.....

We talked, visited, not willing to let any time be wasted.....we even praised....telling stories, reminiscing ....with family, ...but all along it was lasts.....and firsts....first time through all of this new territory which no one wanted to travel ...this was us, not someone else...us...not some stranger we read or heard about....us, our family ....firsts in this journey of lasts and firsts.....

I read psalms at night before we went to bed, we cried, we prayed, we smiled...praise of still no pain....

I didn't want to think of lasts and firsts. But it was always there in the forefront and the background...."make good use of these times"...praise for those times....until it was the last....

So many memories, so many years, so much and so few all wrapped into life....through it all, God has been there. He is good even in the lasts and the firsts. He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end....

Now, as I watch others on their journeys in life, it is personal...it may be lonely at times and it is, but I want to say enjoy enjoy those firsts and lasts....laugh, love, tell stories, hug, live while you can....

Praise, God takes those firsts and lasts....laughs with us, cries with us..loves us .....takes the pain, holds  the tears...gives us new life in Him...somehow....

Thank YOU, the tears are still there, the pain eased, but You are still here in the firsts and the lasts...I am yours....your love endures forever, and your faithfulness continues.....

Revelations 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,”says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2     Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his;
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanksgiving  to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.