Life's contents

I watched the War Dogs movie today and heard a really true line from it.  The setting was a funeral in the movie.  The priest conducting the funeral began the graveside speech with "Life does not come with a table of contents.  Each new chapter is a gift."  The priest went on to describe the man's chapters of life.

Well said whoever the script writer was.  I didn't stay to see the credits, so I don't know who to give credit to.  I like the analogy because some changes in our lives are abrupt, so the chapters come to an end in the same manner, and it is easy to see the next chapter.  Other parts of our lives blend more naturally into each other, but still chapters are discernible because some of the characteristics of the chapters change only slightly.

And the part about each new chapter being a gift is really true because the events in our lives define us.  They become who we are, how we identify ourselves.  Those changes are gifts to us, and we impart that gift as we see fit to the people in our worlds.

And how true is it that Life doesn't come with a table of contents?  Absolutely right.  I haven't ever thought to do it, but I might someday.  I should sit down and write the chapter titles to the chapters of my life and create a table of contents.  It just might help me see the gifts that have been delivered to me by life.