Seize the Moment

Many years ago, my wife and I were walking through Ards Shopping Centre. We noticed quite a crowd had gathered around someone.                So curious to find out what it was all about, we ventured over.  We squeezed into the crowd, and discovered a man from the Tyrone Crystal Factory, was demonstrating his considerable skills on the cutting wheel, making a design on a plain crystal glass.  All of us were transfixed, watching a master craftsman at work. When he finished he looked around the crowd and said, “Right, who wants to have a go at cutting a glass?” Instinctively, the crowd took a step back, indicating their reluctance to try and not to make a fool of themselves.  However, for some unconscious reason, I said, “I’ll have a go”. Before I knew it I had donned an apron, and was sitting at the wheel awaiting instructions. He drew out a few guidelines on the tumbler with a Sharpie pen. Then he instructed me on how to work the treadle and coordinate the hands and feet. Next, he said be very careful with how you press the glass to the diamond wheel. The bottom is thicker than the rim, so press a little heavier on the pattern at the base than the lines going up the side to the rim.

I soon found out it was a lot harder to do than to watch it being done. His years of practice made it look so easy. However, after being as careful as I could, my glass was finished and thankfully still in one piece.  He then asked for my name and address and said it would be cleaned up, and polished, and delivered to me in a few weeks.  Sure enough, it arrived all bright, shiny, and crystal glass looking. I still have it as a prized possession to this day. 

The reason I’ve told you this personal story is to say, that that day was my one and only chance of ever getting to cut a Tyrone Crystal Glass. The company is no more. No one is cutting crystal glass in Tyrone anymore.  Sometimes in life you only get one chance of doing something you’ve never done before and will never get to do again. Opportunity doesn’t always knock twice. Carpe Diem (seize the moment.) That moment may only come once in a lifetime. 

Blind Bartimaeus heard that Jesus was passing by one day. He seized the moment, it was his one and only chance. He shouted as Jesus passed by. Jesus stopped and opened his blinded eyes. Jesus would never pass that way again. Bartimaeus was right. He only needed one opportunity to get his miracle, and he got it.  Zacchaeus, the despised Tax Collector, hid up a tree to see Jesus passing by. Jesus called him down from the tree and went to his home for supper. Zacchaeus’ life was completely changed that day. Good job he climbed up that tree that particular day, for Jesus never passed that way again.  Sometimes you just have to seize the moment. It may never happen again. 

- Pastor David Goudy