Taps: Day is Done, Safely Rest

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.
-Eccl. 3:1

I heard the lullaby on the bugle, called "Taps", the other night.  I thought about what season was ending, has ended, or will end soon.  The call of "Taps" means that something has ended or that day is done.

It also made me think about how everything on earth, except for God, comes to an end at some point.  All that we have that does not ever die is our own faith, hope, and love.  We get credit for our faith, hope, and love; when we die and go to heaven.  These are things that you can take with you.  They remain. 

Life is full of seasons.  Seasons come and go.  Seasons are different.  A season shapes us and blesses us.  Another season tests and tries us.  Sometimes, we get to carry something with us from one season to the next one.  Other times, we need to leave behind something from the last season as we head into the new season.  It takes wisdom and discernment to know.  But God gives wisdom to those who pray and ask (James 1:5).

These are the original lyrics that go with "Taps", and they help us understand what the music is trying to say:

Day is done, gone the sun
From the lakes, from the hills, from the sky
All is well, safely rest
God is nigh.
Fading light dims the sight
And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright
From afar, drawing near
Falls the night.
Thanks and praise for our days
Neath the sun, neath the stars, neath the sky
As we go, this we know
God is nigh.

I like "God is nigh".  Whatever the death, whatever we are saying goodbye to, remember that God is nigh.  God is close.  God is near.  In that time within the times, of letting go; and letting go may occur in a moment or as a process, but we do need to let go....  In that time, God is near.

God superintends the death process.  When a person crosses over into death, God is there.  And when you grieve a loss, and when you let something go that might be hard to let go of and that might be a person, God is close to you, next to you, at your side supporting you as you let go.

This is good news.  God makes provision for your grief transitions.  Our job is to procure it and to walk in it.  God offers us the help, but we have to take it.  God designs the lessons and offers to tutor us, but we have to do our home work.  Remember that God comforts us in all our suffering (2 Cor. 1:3-4).

Taps does not only signal the end of a life, but the simple end of a day.  God designed days, so that we are active for about 16 hours, with plenty of breaks, followed by being inactive and completely at rest for 8 hours.  It is good to end each day with putting our stuff to bed.  We need to forgive people.  We need to release or let go of our anger.  We need to cast our cares on the Lord, at the end of each day.

For some of us, it is harder to let go.  It is a discipline to release our cares into the hands of God.  As the sun faithfully rises each morning, God faithfully brings us into the new season or new life, when there has been death.  We are called upon to have faith for God to bring the dawning of a new day.

And God's mercies are new every morning (Lam. 3:22), no matter how bad your suffering is.