Many times I've said, "I must invite this person or that person over." We just don't seem to have the time right now. Sometimes we are busy with real "important" things. At times the Lord will speak to us to call, write or visit someone. How can we know? Is there enough time left for either of us?

Tonight, I'm remembering a very dear Christian friend of many years. A year or so ago she stopped in to see us; we had just finished eating. I had prepared a real southern meal, fresh turnip greens with some other vegetables, corn bread, sweet potatoes and pork. She was real excited and hungry. In the south we do not stand on formality. She sat down and ate.

We had such a wonderful time of fellowship and promised we would do this again real soon. Time came and went with us all being busy with our own lives. We still talked on the phone and I often had sweet notes from her saying she was praying for us. We always talked about when we would get together to eat again. We were looking forward to the same good time we had before. We all know we can't go back. We should know to savor every moment as it comes.

Her husband had died about five years before. We knew she was a lonely lady; although she had two grown sons. She worked a job and enjoyed what she did. Being a very talented musician and singer she was usually in demand for her talents somewhere. But we had a desire to fellowship with her and had ages of time ahead of us to do so, or so we thought!

I kept feeling the urgency to invite her for that meal we had planned. I told my husband, who also loved this friend very much, "I must cook for Elaine". So I made the call and set a date. I planned the same meal, and she came before going to work that afternoon. We had a wonderful time of sweet fellowship and food.

I had also invited my brother and his wife, special friends to her also. We talked about real important things; not idle chitchat. My precious brother was a sick man and we talked about wills and things we needed to do.

As she was leaving, my Sister-In-Love asked to make a picture of her, my beautiful brother and me. This was mid-April. That picture is a real treasure now. That was the last time we saw our dear Elaine.

On Saturday night in May, before Mother's Day, she phoned me and we talked about 45 minutes. We could always find something important to both of us to talk about. I asked her opinion on some things and she needed help with a problem. She said she was spending the day with one of her children the next day. She was very excited, as she would get to see her only grandchild.

On the following Monday she started to work, someone ran a red light and hit her. She was pinned in the car. The leader of the rescue unit that came was a member of our family. He talked to her as he worked hard to get her out of the car.

As they were traveling to the hospital, he asked, "Do you know who I am?"

She said, "Yes, Steve, I love you."

They reached the hospital. As they were carrying her down the hall, she said, "I'm going to die."

Someone answered her, "Oh no, you are going to be all right." They thought she would be.

In a very short while she went into cardiac arrest and was gone immediately to be with the Lord.

II Corinthians 6:2 (in part) tells us: behold, now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation.

Sometimes we put off accepting Jesus as our Savior till it's too late. Do You Have the Time? Is It Later Than We Think?

© Datha Darby

Christ Centered