Birthday Meditations

Birthday celebrations are special, especially when you get to enjoy them with family. The older I get the more my celebrations turn to meditations. (They tell me that reflection is just another sign of old age!) Every milestone in life is an opportunity to both glorify God and examine your own heart.

I am very grateful that God has allowed me to live to my forty-second birthday. It has been a joy this week to hear from so many special friends and rejoice in the goodness of God. And it has caused me to think about so many things.

God willing, tomorrow I will preach from the oldest psalm in the Bible. Not because I feel old, but because there is a truth there for every stage of life. Moses wrote about “the days of our years” (Psalm 90:10). Years are made up of days and every day matters for eternity.

Today is my 15,340th day on this earth. The average person lives 27,375 days. If this is true, I have lived more days than I have left.

Now, only God knows how long any of us have to live, but one thing I do know is this: every day matters.

In that same psalm we read, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). Pondering the brevity of life helps you to think about what is truly important.

Another psalmist wrote, “My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof” (Psalm 71:15).

I can number the days that I have lived, but I do not know the number of days I have left. Only the Creator and Judge knows that number. He numbers my days in His good providence. I number my days for emphasis. He controls the number. I can only consider it.

This is my birthday meditation but perhaps it will help you today as well…

“My times are in thy hand...” (Psalm 31:15)

“Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am” (Psalm 39:4).

As a little boy I got my first haircut from a young barber in West Virginia. I don’t remember it, but the picture proves that it was not one of my happier early days. This week the same barber cut my hair. He is considerably older and so am I. We talked about his wife who is with the Lord and my children who are growing up too quickly. As we did he reminded me of that powerful verse in James 4:14: “For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”

The value of each day and the urgency of life should not be our meditation only on our birthday! Yes, every day matters. This should be our meditation every day.

Selah.