REFLECTIONS

Bucket List

The idea of the Bucket List became popular after the release of a movie by that name in 2007. The story featured two characters, both facing potential life ending illnesses, who went in pursuit of their life dreams before their lives ended. Bucket lists have an ultimate deadline. If one doesn’t beat it, there are no second chances. But Solomon might still have included those pursuits as “Meaningless! Meaningless!”/ “Utterly meaningless! /Everything is meaningless.”/What does man gain from all his labor/at which he toils under the sun? Meaningless or not, bucket lists spelling out unfulfilled lifelong dreams find their way onto refrigerator doors.

We think more and more about our bucket lists as life draws nearer to the other side. We think about it when someone dear passes away, wondering if their spirit is still in the room watching, seeing, hearing us, just as before. But it is memories of them that touch a tender spot in our hearts. The memories recall some part of who they were that remains a part of who they helped us become. So, in a way, those in our lives who have passed to the other side remain. And they still make a difference. The difference they make now was decided by who they were and how they lived while they were with us.

Still, I wonder why we make such a list of things we want to see or do before the clock runs out on our time here. Are our memories portable into the next life? Or are they like material possessions that are left behind? The question, though, still isn’t likely to dampen the desire to see or do something we’ve dreamed of; but I wonder if there’s something more important to be added to the bucket list that most people overlook.

Memories, like possessions, are something we leave behind with others. Just as our memories of those who lived before shaped our lives, the memories we leave will shape the lives of those who follow. To reveal Jesus Christ to those around us by who we are to them and by the way we live with them could leave a legacy of memories that might lead others to find him. Even that slightest possibility helps to see how important our lives are. We aren’t finished in this world when we pass to the other side. Who we are lingers on through the lives we leave behind. Maybe that’s what Jesus was trying to tell us when he said, “You are the light of the world.” If our lives today reflect the Savior, we help illuminate the world long after we have passed into Christ’s loving arms.

And isn’t that a worthy cause to place at the top of the bucket list.
 

You are the light of the world,

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org.

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