Hey, Buddy, Don't Miss the Time:

SOMETHING  TO THINK ABOUT

"Strike while the iron is hot."   "Window of opportunity."   "What might have been."   "I coulda' been a contendah."   "Counting your chickens before they hatch."  All of these sayings have to do with the opportune time.  In my career I have frequently observed one example of timely or, tragically, untimely action.  In poetic language the problem of missing the right time in family relationships is expressed in Song of Solomon.       "I was asleep but my heart was awake.  A voice! My beloved was knocking:  'Open to me, my sister, my darling, My dove, my perfect one! For my head is drenched with dew, My locks with the damp of the night.'  "I have taken off my dress, How can I put it on again? I have washed my feet, How can I dirty them again?  "My beloved extended his hand through the opening, And my feelings were aroused for him.  "I arose to open to my beloved; And my hands dripped with myrrh, And my fingers with liquid myrrh, On the handles of the bolt. "I opened to my beloved, But my beloved had turned away and had gone!  My heart went out to him as he spoke. I searched for him but I did not find him; I called him but he did not answer me."  (Song of Solomon 5:2-6, NASB95)   It's all about timing.   Back in the day when families spent almost all their timeclose to family I figure this must have been less of a problem.  Now many couples wave to one another as they pass on the road.  He works one shift, she another, and you have to work in Little League and piano lessons for the kids.   This Sunday we are talking about "redeeming the time" in our morning worship service.  I encourage you to focus on family as a prime realm in which to strike while the iron is hot.  Don't allow the opportune time to become woulda, coulda, shoulda. It's STTA (right now)