The idea of a last, first kiss is such a romantic notion. Imagine everything in your day today as the first time you will experience it and as the last time you will experience it. If we viewed what we take for granted in that way, we surely would be more grateful, more thankful for those things. To draw in your first waking breath of the day, as it is your last. To greet those in your circle of influence with the anticipation that it will be the last time you ever will.

It will provide urgency to life, missing among the daily diatribe of our day. We often let our troubles dictate how we view our day. Many of the distractions to making today a faithful day envelop us in its frenzied, chaotic whirlwind of confusions. Making every choice we make independent of our last choice gives us the power we need to divert and discern the bad from the good and see how much of our energy is expended in careless, useless ways.

When we view everything with the anticipation of it being the last time, we are able to carefully and prayerfully overcome what drags us from the center of our balance. I can think about how many opportunities I have wasted to serve the Lord because I let my view, my judgment become overcast with the clouds of distraction. Had I viewed what was before me, clearly, with anticipation that it would be the last chance, some of my life may have turned out differently.

The band Anberlin sings in its song Alexithymia, “its amazing how much of life turns out the way it does, how we end up hurting worst, the only ones we really love”. And another verse adds, as if Jesus were imploring us, “I want to be your last, first kiss.” When Jesus blesses us with His first kiss, His touch on what we do, it will be the last touch we need. I am willing to stand and say that if we had not been distracted from the center core of our beliefs, in many of these situations, hurt would not have been the outcome.

Life creates and recreates environments which confound us daily. Pressures and stresses demand our attention every waking moment. Reoccurring darkness looms on the horizon, with each new day and “we’re crashing into new unknowns, lost in them. Sometimes its easier to be broken and easier to hide”, to borrow a thought from Lifehouse’s song First Time. If only we could be hopeful of God’s last, first, kiss, and His first time outlook.

Isn’t that the premise though of the Good News, that God loving each and every one of us so much that He sent His only Son to die for us and for our sins? It is the greatest promise available to us, one that cannot be compromised. God’s last, first, calms our storms and fears, raises the dead, feeds the hungry, restores hearing and gives sight to the blind. As part of sight giving, He reveals Scripture to those who seek His word, He provides answers to those who turn to Him.

We honor, worship and praise Him, when we look for Him in our time of need. His promise is forever to be there for us, to never leave nor forsake us. It is the promise of His last, first kiss…..

IHN 09/03/07