In a few days I will have another one of those birthdays
with a zero. There are certain birthdays
that seem to capture our attention more than others. I remember my 15th birthday
because I could get my driver’s license learner’s permit. I remember 18 because that meant that I could
vote, get drafted & buy beer. It
wound up not being such a big deal. I
didn’t get drafted or buy beer however I voted in the presidential election for
the first time in my life but the president I voted for is the only one in
history to quit. Oh well! Other birthdays had some significance here
and there. I never really thought about
getting older until I turned 50. Living
half a century got my attention. This
was my ‘wake-up call’ that my years of life were rapidly moving along. Turning 65 was noteworthy because I qualified
for Medicare. But 70…there is a Psalm
that deals with the 70th birthday.
The 90th Psalm is a prayer of Moses that’s probably the
oldest Psalm in the Bible. Moses lived
long past 70, in fact the Bible tells us that Moses died at the age of 120. However, he wrote in Psalm 90:10; “Our
days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the
best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly
away.’ This is an interesting
observation for someone for whom 70 years is just a little past the halfway
point in his life.
It may have been that 70 for Moses was similar to my
50. Perhaps this was the time when Moses
first began to grasp how quickly life seems to pass. Each of us has a point when we realize that
our time on earth is brief and fleeting.
One day my grandmother put pen to paper and reflected on her life as she
pondered memories, both good and bad, of her life. She was known for her writing talent. I inherited the writing bug from her. My cousin compiled a collection of her
writing in a book that her children and grandchildren continue to treasure. Today I refer to this particular writing where
she looked back at the life she had seen and experienced thinking, as did
Moses, how even in the best times there is always trouble and sorrow. She wrote about how she hated thinking of
leaving this life. She was a woman
of great faith and knew Heaven waited but she felt impressed to speak of the
blessings and difficulties she had seen and the loved ones she would miss. She was 65 when she put her feelings on paper. She didn’t know that she would live another
33 years until the age of 98 but this seemed to be a time of significance in
the way she viewed life from that point on.
Moses may have been at a similar place in his thoughts and
observations about life. A couple of
verses later he declares the importance of knowing that our days of life are
numbered. Like it or not, there is a specific number of
days to each life. We don’t know the
number of days we will live but each of us has a certain number of days to our
life and then it will end. I often have
said that I would like to know the number of my days. As I approach the last few days, I would do nothing
but eat Oreos and ice cream. Obviously,
that is a foolish way to look at making the most of one’s last days. It would be much wiser to spend those days
enjoying time with loved ones.
Moses states in verse 12, “Teach us to number our days,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” A heart of wisdom comes from knowing that
our days are numbered.
It matters not that we don’t know the number of our days. Realizing that our number of days are limited
should make us realize that we need to make the most of each day and not waste
any time. The days can’t be reclaimed
once they pass. Usually, we don't number
our days; we number our years. When you have a birthday and someone asks how
old you are, you tell them your age in the number of years. But true spiritual
wisdom comes from numbering our days, because we live a day at a time. We don’t know that we will have tomorrow but
we know that we have today. God has
ordained that the entire universe functions a day at a time. Jesus taught us to pray for God to, “Give
us this day our daily bread" (Matt. 6:11).
A heart of wisdom lives each day as if it could be the
last…because it could be. We may realize
that our days are numbered but we don’t know when that last number/day will
arrive. It could be years from now or
moments away. Therefore, we need to
treat each moment as precious, fragile and fleeting. That means treating everyone we encounter each
day in the same fashion. We never know
if this will be the last day we will have with them. If You knew today would be the last day you
would have with a loved one or friend, wouldn’t you make that day/moment as
positive as possible? Who would want to
have their last day with anyone as a day of anger or frustration? So, since we don’t know the number of our
last day, or that of anyone else, a heart of wisdom leads us to make the most
of every opportunity to make the day as happy and pleasant as possible. A heart of wisdom treats each day and each
person we encounter that day as cherished and valued.
As I approach my 25,550th day (70 years x 365 days…I may be a product of the Mississippi public school system but I can still do basic multiplication), I am going to try my best to make the most of each day. Wouldn’t the world be better if we all did that? A heart of wisdom teaches me to love, appreciate and treasure each moment and each person I encounter as I number each precious day.
