Everything Can Change in a Moment

Last week after the wedding day of my son Manjo and his wife Minnie Bathan in Singapore, which was solemnized in the Church of St. Teresa, I went shopping in China Town with my grandchildren, Patricia, Manny, William and Kevin, who came all the way from Australia and New Zealand to attend the wedding of their father. While going around the store, I lost my balance because of a gap between the upper floor and the lower floor which I didn’t see. With God’s grace, I didn’t’ fall flat with my back on the floor. Upon recovering from the incident, I could not help but ask myself, “What would have happened to me if God didn’t protect me from that untoward incident?” I realized then that life could be changed in a moment. I thank and praise the Lord for His protection that He showered upon me.

Barbara Jacoby of www.letlifehappen.com has this observation: “I have been reflecting on a couple of the main stories that have been in the news lately and started to think about how things can change in an instant. There was the policeman who was out on patrol and conducted a routine traffic stop. As he approached the car, the passenger in the car shot him to death. Then, there was the teenager who was standing in his front yard and was hit and killed by a bullet meant for a gang member.

“But, it is not just the deaths of these two people to consider. So many lives have been forever changed in an instant. The families of these people and their friends and associates are forever changed. For everyone left behind, they have lost a part of their hearts that can never be replaced. So many lives are forever changed.

“I contemplate the possibility that unkind words or arguments marked the last time that they were together. And how many will live the rest of their lives with the pain knowing that they were never really willing to share with their loved ones the true way that they felt about them.”

Jacoby said, “We should consider that everything in life can be changed in a moment.” It is in this line of thinking that she shared the following insights:

• I guess the most important thing always takes us back to the same place and that to live each day as if it were our last. We should always take care to treat others with dignity and respect and to let them know how much they are loved and how much they mean to us. We need to share our time and space in the best way that we know how.

• This is the only way that, if something happens to that person before we meet again, we will have no regrets for not having shared the time that we had together in the very best way that we could. And if by chance, such a catastrophe ever happens in our lives and we have not treated the other person in the best way that we could, regrets would be creeping in our inner being. 

• Let’s be aware that everything in life can be changed in a moment. Hence, a writer once said, “I pass this world but only once; anything that I can do or any kindness that I can show, let me do it now. Let me not defer it, for I shall not pass this way again.”