Hyphen Between the Dates

The Hyphen Between the Dates

Since it is my birthday this Saturday, April 5, (and I will be 49yrs old and look good too, LOL), I have been reflecting on my life. You know how we do it. We have another birthday and we look back and wonder where the years went and how did I get this age so fast. LOL.We say, “I’m my mother’s age”.

Then, if your like me, you think and wonder when I am going to get the other date. You know the ending date of your life. Do I get another year or is this the last year? Do I get 10 more 20 more or just 1 more year?

You never know the date of birth nor the date of your death. These seem to be a secret only held for God. Have you thought about that?

Have you thought about why they list your birth date and then a “hyphen” and then your death date on a tombstone? I mean we don’t care. Why not just list the day the person died? Never could figure that out except it may be to let someone know how long we lived. Ok. I guess that works. But I think the bigger question is why the hyphen.

What does that little dash represent anyway?What does that mean? What? What? I will tell you what????

It represents your LIFE. 

It’s your whole life lived out to the Father God and it determines where you will spend your eternal life. It’s the parts of your life that we on earth can see…..the rest God sees. Wow..amazing isn’t it.  Your life is contained in that little dash mark.

Have you thought about your life in those terms. I mean, your life is all the stuff in the middle. Between the dates. This is what the bible says our life is like on a daily basis……

Yet you do not know [the least thing] about what may happen tomorrow. What is the nature of your life? You are [really] but a wisp of vapor (a puff of smoke, a mist) that is visible for a little while and then disappears [into thin air].– James 4:14

We are only given so much time to do the things that God birthed us to do. An exact amount of days and hours to do the good works….the destiny…the purpose. There is something finished you must start.There are good works that God has already set in motion and finished them and you are supposed to find out what that “good” work is and complete it in that hyphen space of time.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.– Ephesians 2:10

That hyphen represents your life…your dreams, hurts, pain, joys, sorrows, career, life of sin, life of righteousness. It represents you on the earth and all you did, said, thought, became, etc.

Your life is in that little dash mark. It’s what you do in the dark that no one sees. It’s what you do openly that everyone sees. It’s what you do for others and how you treat others. It’s all the things that God told you to do and not to do. That dash mark is your destiny. That little dash mark is what people will say about you and remember you for. It is what you fought and died over and cried tears over. That dash mark contains all  your prayers and cries to God.

That hyphen mark is who you loved and who loved you. That hyphen mark is the legacy that you leave behind in the earth for the next generation to latch on to.  That hyphen is your family and the loved ones you were given by God as gifts that you either raised, loved, taught, cherished, nourished or abused, left, mistreated and disowned. That hyphen is your obedience and your disobedience.That hyphen mark is also all the things you left behind. Unsaid. Unfinished. That hyphen is your spirit expressed in this earth that touched the spirit of another person. That hyphen is eternal.

The hyphen between the dates….. is the eternal you that will live on forever somewhere.

Think about your life today in a different way. If you have a birthday coming soon or someone you love does…think about what that hyphen will mean. It is a small little mark but filled with eternal value. It is your one quarter to spend on something. It is your one chance to get it right. It is a gift from God.

Selah.