Number our days
My beautiful, precious wife turns 30 tomorrow. That means she has been alive for just under 11,000 days. I myself clock in at about 11,700. We have been husband and wife for about 2,300 of those days.
I remember being a little kid and thinking that an hour was a looooong time, and a day was an eternity. Forget about years. Years were so long that they were strictly theoretical. Time changes that perspective, of course. Now sometimes it seems that an absent blinking of the eyes at age five allowed 27 years to pass before I knew I was even a day older. Ten years ago, I thought 40 was something that happened only to old people. It now looks younger every day.
Time is strange. The older I get, the more I realize that time doesn't mean what we think it means. It's fluid. It's arbitrary. God created the universe in six days, and some people believe that every one of those days contained 24 distinct hours. It's possible, I guess. I have often thought that since we measure hours by the sun, and since the sun wasn't created (it seems) until the fourth day, the first three days could not have contained any hours at all. But now I'm not sure that an hour, or even a year, means anything even with the sun to dictate it. It seems to me that I met my wife yesterday, though I can't bring myself to believe that I ever lived without her.
Six years, 30 years, 50 years, 80 years… it's hard to tell the difference sometimes. To God, a day is not much different from 1,000 years. That suggests to me that time is not the treasure we have made it out to be. Life is the gift—a gift we've all been given. A birthday is a great opportunity to take stock of that gift, to measure how well we have used it so far. I can testify gladly that my wife has used her life for love, and I thank God he has allowed me to be a part of it.
Psalm 90
From Everlasting to Everlasting
A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
4 For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night.
5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning:
6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.
10 The years of our life are seventy,
or even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.
12 So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
