Psalm 90:12

My daughter turned a year old last week. We didn’t give her a smash cake, we gave her a watermelon with a “1” candle in it. She likes watermelon. We like to keep it that way.

Anyway, everyone says the time goes by quickly as a young parent. I remember after she was born, I started thinking that life is pretty short. I thought, “In 20 years, when she’s off at college, I’ll be 51 years old.” Now, 50 doesn’t seem old to me anymore. 30 years after that, which is about how long I’ve lived so far, I’ll be 80. Now, 80 years old doesn’t seem that old to me anymore.

The days are long and the years are short, they say, and God says that, too. Psalm 90:12 says that people are like grass and the flowers of the field, here today and gone tomorrow.

At the same time we’re celebrating my daughter’s new, young life, a coworker had recently passed away of cancer. He was in his 60s. We had a memorial service for him at work, and it got me thinking about all kinds of things that I don’t have time to talk about, like legacy, kindness.

What do people say about me when I walk out of the room? Am I someone who “never says a bad word about someone else”? What do I want people to say about me when I die?

These aren’t morbid questions or thoughts. We can’t think much about resurrection without thinking at least a little bit about death. The Bible tells us that this is wise, to consider that we don’t live forever.

“Teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.”
Psalm 90:12 NASB1995

I got on Google and searched “days since my birthday.” It has been over 11,600 days since my birthday. Have I thanked God for every single one of them? If I live to be 90 years old, I will have lived about 34,000 days. That sounds like both a lot and not enough.

I have this little book of a quote per day from St Augustine, and I want to leave you with his thoughts because I can say nothing better.

“Our End:

OUR prayer is ‘Make known to me, O Lord, my end.’ The end is where we are going to stay. When we left our houses, our end was to come to church. Again, from here each one of us has the end of going home. We end in the place we are going to.

So now here we all are, engaged in life’s pil- grimage, and we have an end we are going to- ward. Toward what are we going? Toward our home country. What is our home country? Jerusalem, mother of the faithful, mother of the living! – Sermon 16A, 9

PRAYER. You, the Omnipotent and the Good, care for each of us as if each was Your sole care, and for all as for one alone! – Confessions 3, 11″

https://bible.com/bible/100/psa.90.12.NASB1995