I was reminded of the title of this JLOG a few weeks ago when Nadine and I went downtown and saw the street in front of the Flagstaff Orpheum Theater blocked off.    Up and down this street were classic VW bugs and VW busses.

I remember the year they came out and didn’t give it another thought about buying one. They had no sway of attraction for me and I never gave it a thought of going into the dealership to test drive one. For so many years I took them for granted and had no thoughts of appreciating  the technology or the importance they played in the auto industry. It wasn’t until three weeks ago when Nadine and I looked at the VWs’ sitting on the street and were lured into the Orpheum (it was celebrating 99 years of existence).  We watched the creation of the VW bus from a platform that was made to move industrial parts in a German factory.  I began to appreciate what I had taken for granted forever.

It made me think of what else I often take for granted that is all around me. How about relationships? We think our loved ones will live forever until one of them dies. Regret may come when we think of the things we could have said to them but we just took for granted they would be there.

What about possessions?  As long as we have our possessions we don’t think a thing of what would happen if they (our possessions) were to vanish. It’s only when they are gone or go missing that we give those things a second look.

What about our Creator?  When things are going well it’s easy to take for granted who God is and what He does for us  but what happens when things aren’t going as we planned?  What we took for granted-that He would always be there for us-is put into question.  It’s not that He left us, but that we left Him and put our focus on other things.

You could fill in the blank of what we have now that could go missing.  Child. Wife. Mother. Father. Friend. Job. Employer. Employee. House. Car. Etc.  I could go on and on.

On this journey we have the opportunity to erase the “for granted” mentality and replace it with a heart of appreciation for who we are what we have been given. Living as if today were the last day of our life can transform the “for granted” mindset.