Outing

If I was to look back down the timeline of my life I would be able to tell you preparing for an outing has changed a lot. When I was a child I had to prepare according to the instructions of my parents. When we lived in Bingara, we received instructions such as: “You are going to Inverell, make sure you take a jacket” or “Have you had a drink of water and been to the bathroom”. As a single young adult it was often simply a case of making sure I had my keys and wallet and walking out the door. There were no mobile phones in those days.

Then when I got married, we lived halfway between two major towns so an outing amounted to an early morning trip to town on Saturday morning in order to get the shopping done before the shops closed at noon but it was still a case of grabbling the keys, wallet and jumping in the car. Next the children made an appearance while they were young, getting ready for an outing took on a whole new phase. There were nappies to pack, bottles to make to ensure the children had food and a whole host of bits and pieces that would enable us to meet whatever unexpected situation might arise. As they grew older it changed again from catering for their every need to trying to make sure that they were able to all fit in the car or had somewhere to go if they weren’t coming with us.

Now we are back to being a couple again and while you might think that we can return to just grabbing the wallet and keys again it isn’t really. As we are older it means that before we leave (since our memories are not as good as they used to be) we have to make sure that we have the list of things to do, spectacles, mobile phone and the keys.

But there is one outing that will not allow me time to check to make sure that I have everything. That is my final outing from this world to the next. God will come and call me and I must go right there and then and leave everything behind including my broken worn out body.

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” 1 Corinthians 15:52.