Numbered Days

The past two weeks have been filled with more funerals than I care to count and hopefully we can have a break from these for a little while. However, they do tend to make us think and evaluate many aspects of our own lives. Some of that can be a positive and some of the reflections are less than stellar. Some of these funerals of the past few weeks have been for friends who had been battling illness or were elderly and others have been for people who were, by our standards, too young to pass away. Their days have been cut short.

One of the recurring thoughts has been about the number of our days. None of us knows how long we will live on this earth and often we do not want to begin to even think about what they number might be. While I do not recommend that you stress or become obsessed with what the number of your days may be, I do want to look at what the Bible has to say about this in Psalm 90. This psalm hits on how fragile our lives really are. And although that seems depressing initially, there is some good news. Psalm 90:12 reminds us to consider the very fact that because our lives are so fragile, we should consider the number of our days, not so that we may be depressed but rather that our hearts may gain wisdom. By considering how fragile our lives are, we can come and get wisdom by understanding God’s view and plan for our lives. Psalm 90 goes on to remind us that we find joy in our short days through God’s steadfast love. So as the funerals have come and we have been challenged to number our days, we can learn to apply God’s wisdom to our hearts so that we can see God at work in us and those around us.

Lord, help me to see the world through your eyes rather than my stressed out view of how short this life is. I want your wisdom applied to my heart today. Amen.