JFK & Dealey Plaza

My wife, Dorcas, and I were in Dallas, Texas, USA, today, and we had the opportunity to visit Dealey Plaza, the former Texas School Book Depository building, and the 6th Floor Museum, all located on the site where former US President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963.

I grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, surrounded by the Kennedy family and their legacy, and so to visit Dallas and to see the site where JFK was assassinated was especially poignant and impactful. We saw the exact spots on the street where JFK was shot while seated in his open-air presidential limousine (the spots are marked with an "X" on the Dallas street) and we saw the window on the 6th floor of the former Texas School Book Depository building where Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly fired on JFK (although the vast majority of Americans now believe that Oswald was part of a larger conspiracy with - choose your pick - the Mafia, the CIA, Castro loyalists, Castro opponents, Texas oilmen, and/or right-wing extremeists, or any combination of the above).

JFK was just 46 years old when he was killed (the youngest elected president in US history), and as we looked at the site on the street where he was struck down, and at the site on the 6th floor of the former school book depository building where the assassin allegedly fired the fatal shots, I was reminded of the words found in James 4:14 (TNIV), "Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."

Among the items of JFK memorabilia which we viewed in the 6th Floor Museum were invitations to a luncheon which was to be held to honor JFK in Dallas on the afternoon of November 22, 1963. Needless to say, JFK never made it. JFK surely never thought that his life was about to end in such a violent manner as his limousine turned the corner and passed in front of the school book depository building. But then several shots shattered the crisp Dallas afternoon, and JFK's young life was snuffed out. There was no November 23, 1963, for JFK. There was no tomorrow. His mist-like life had vanished in a very quick and very violent manner.

The lesson is one which we all must learn. Not all of us will be presidents or prime ministers, but all of us are living lives that hold no guarantee of a tomorrow. 9/11/01 taught us the same lesson as 11/22/63. For JFK, for you, and for me, life is but a mist. We are on this planet for a little while, and then we all will vanish into eternity.

Make the most of your time. You never know when your own 11/22/63 will come.

Read more at www.twitter.com/StephenGuschov.