A botanist in Scotland used to go out on fine days among the heather, and taking out his microscope, he would lie among the purple blooms and examine them for hours at a time. A shepherd who tended his sheep close by watched him, wondering what was so interesting among the common heather and heather-bell.
Finally, he came to the botanist and asked what he found so interesting. Without replying, the botanist handed him the bloom and glass. The shepherd gazed intently at the perfection and beauty revealed by the microscope, and presently tears trickled down his brown cheeks.
"Why those tears?" asked the botanist.
"Oh," replied the shepherd, "they are se bonnie, and to think I hae trampled sae mony of them under ma feet!"
Like the shepherd, many people are now trampling beautiful opportunities under their feet! You may be one of them, but you still have an opportunity, a golden NOW. Do not despise it, or neglect it, or you will look back with longing desire that can never be realized: "If I only had another opportunity, how I would make good use of it!"
Opportunities neglected, and gone forever, will only be a torment to remember. "To think I could have been saved—I would have been saved—if only I had not wasted all my opportunities."
Thank God that you still have time to decide for Christ; still time to turn to Him who "will in no wise cast out." This opportunity, now, is yours. Use it wisely, for it is the most precious possession you have. Who knows if you will ever have another? Make Christ and His salvation your choice now, lest you awake in a lost eternity to find opportunities gone forever, leaving only the tormenting memory, never to be erased, that you carelessly let them slip by.