“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain’; whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes…” James 4:13-14

We’re all so busy carrying on with our daily lives that we seldom stop to think about just how precious life is – even with its ups and downs, and just how fragile our lives are, and how tenuous our hold on this life is. Once again this was all brought home to me in three separate events that occurred just this past day:

1) A shooter goes on a rampage at a shopping mall in Omaha, Nebraska. Eight people just out for a bit of shopping are in the wrong place at the wrong tome and are killed, with a number of others injured.

2) A man robs a bank here in Tempe and leads police cars and helicopters on a high-speed chase. After getting on and off a freeway several times, he ends up on a main road, crosses the center lane and crashes head-on into an unsuspecting driver traveling the opposite way. Both drivers are killed instantly.

3) One of the lab techs who works at my wife Tracey’s place on the third shift suffers a massive coronary and dies on the spot. He was in his early fifties.

There are some things in life you just can’t explain. You just never know when your time is going to come.

But there are always plenty of opportunities to take a moment and give thanks for everything you have.

Because you never know…

Tonight, thoughts and prayers go out to all those who grieve and mourn the passing of loved ones lost this day.