Making the most of Days of Grace

I have recently read one of the most moving and thought provoking books I remember coming across.  It was both tremendously sad and yet heart-warmingly uplifting.  Harrold Parry was born in December 1896.  In January 1916 he felt compelled to volunteer for Army service in WWI.  Sadly he was killed in action at Ypres in May 1917 at the age of just 20.  The book includes many of the letters which Harold wrote home to family and friends during his period of military service.  They reveal a harrowing picture of the terrible experiences of those who fought on the front line.  He was clearly a remarkable young man.  In one passage he writes,

“Death itself I do not fear, but I have rather a dread of the manner of death.  I don’t want to be mangled badly and to be out in No Man’s Land until I die, and I don’t want to die at all – yet.  It seems so difficult to face the prospect with so little in life and so much to do.  The world is in such terrible need of love and beauty, and when one thinks that it might be possible for oneself to help, even in a limited and confined way, in a truer appreciation and perception of the things that really matter – well, until one has done something, death seems a poor ending to all hopes and fears, all desires and ambitions.”

Though it is clear that Harold had a strong Christian faith and did not fear death, at the same time he had a desperate desire to make his life count for something before he died.  The imminence of death as a front line soldier somehow brought into clearer perspective for him the value of each new day, and highlighted the things in life which really matter.

This train of thought was reemphasised to me earlier today in conversation with my brother, Phil, who lives in New Zealand.  In the early part of last year Phil was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and given a mere few months to live.  In the intervening period he has been through some desperately hard times, and felt at one point that death was approaching.  Remarkably, he is currently feeling as good healthwise as he has for a very long time.  Because he has now outlived the most optimistic original prognosis, he now sees the gift of each new day as a “Day of Grace”.  Coming so close to death has helped him, like Harold Parry, to see how precious is the gift of a new day, and given him an urgency to make every day count for good.

All this links in with the fact that I was introduced, in the past couple of weeks, to a remarkable and challenging poem, “The Dash” (you can read it HERE). The challenge of the poem is to consider how we use the limited time which we all have on planet earth.  Perhaps our waking thought for each new day ought to be to thank God for another Day of Grace, and to ask for his help to make it count for good.