Watching the news these last few weeks has left a bigger impact than usual.

The ongoing coverage of the tragedies of the missing Malaysian jetliner and the mudslide in Washington State repeatedly remind me of the uncertainty of our future, of our lives.

We’re not guaranteed anything on earth past the present time, place and people we know. All we have for sure is the here and now.

Maybe these two particular stories strike a chord with me because of the connections I feel with the events. The Boeing 777, like the plane lost, was the program I worked on when I was at The Boeing Company. I want to know what happened to it and to the people it carried.

Growing up in Washington, my heart sank at nature’s ravaging force that claimed lives in my former home state. Nature blesses us with beauty; it’s a big reason why we love camp. That same blessing can unexpectedly turn deadly.

God has a plan. We’re not privy to it until He unfolds it. And we’d be hard-pressed to try to explain these events to anyone who will never hug their loved ones again.

The best we can do is intentionally appreciate what and who is in our lives at this moment. Maybe this is a good time to express our gratitude to our hard-working team mates, and to tell our own loved ones how much they mean to us and how much we love them.