| “Teach us to number our days…” |
| —Psalm 90:12a |
Have you ever watched sand fall through the narrow throat of an hourglass? It is really quite amazing to see a large quantity of sand waiting to pass through that narrow opening and fall into the pile of sand below. If I look really carefully, I notice that the grains nearest the throat do not all fall in an orderly way through the opening. Rather, they tumble about a bit before, one by one, they zip rather quickly through that throat and fall downward.
Once the sand falls onto the pile at the bottom of the hourglass, each grain bounces around a bit there, too. Some of them fall outward and downward to the very edge of the pile. Others stop rolling partway down the pile. Still others stay fairly near the top of the pile.
My nephew, who formerly taught Physics at my Alma Mater, Houghton University—or, as it was known when I began as a student there 58 years ago, Houghton College—and who earned a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Purdue University, could likely explain all the dynamic forces set up by the sand queuing up, passing through the throat of the hourglass, and falling to the bottom of the sand pile. There are obviously lots of intriguing actions caused by the Laws of Physics and initiated by the downward pull of the earth’s gravity.
In our lives, the passage of time acts in many of the same ways as those grains of sand in the hourglass. Or, maybe an even better example would be the ever so slight, but persistent, movement of the shadow cast by the sun on a sundial. In some ways, time seems to pass slowly. In other ways, particularly when one becomes older, the passage of time seems to accelerate.
God has granted each of us a particular number of days on this earth. We do not know how many days have been allotted to us. But, we can do our best to make the very most of each moment God has given to us.
I thought a great deal about the passage of time during the two years when multiple myeloma claimed the life of my dearly loved sister-in-law. Charlene Willink Kidder was a beautiful, sweet, kind, and loving woman. She married a godly man. She raised three wonderful daughters. And, she was extraordinarily talented, a gifted artist—though I seriously doubt that Charlene ever considered herself talented for even one moment of her days. She was very humble and self-effacing.
In many ways it seems such a tragedy to me for someone so relatively young at age 67 to die from such a horrible disease. She could have lived well up into her eighties. Who knows what twenty more years of life would have meant to her young grandchildren, her children, and her beloved husband. Not to mention what that time would have meant to those of us in her extended family who loved her so very much.
But, God had numbered her days before she was even born. He knew how much time He had allotted her. He knew what she would accomplish, the lives she would touch, the people He would use her to draw to Himself, the way in which she would employ her talents and abilities to bring honor to Him.
Moses, in a moment of quiet reflection—as he considered the great responsibility that God had given him to lead the people of Israel out of captivity in Egypt and to the shores of the land God had promised to give to them forever—prayed a prayer recorded in Psalm 90. It is a beautiful, heartfelt, prayer. Among the words of wisdom found in this prayer are these words recorded in Psalm 90:12:
Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Here Moses is asking God to teach us to take stock of the fact that He has given us a certain number of days. We must make the best use of them that we can. He placed us here on this earth as His ambassadors. He has given us the task of demonstrating His mercy, grace, and unfailing love to the people around us. He has blessed us with family and friends, with whom and through whom we can bring honor and glory to Him.
May God help us at the beginning of this new day to learn this important lesson and make the very best use of the time He has given us. May we look with joy to the beginning of each new day. May we see His promises open up before us. May we continually praise Him with our lips and with our hearts, as we go about the task He has given us in the world. And may we rest completely in Him, knowing that He always, always, has the very best plan for our lives.
Based on a blog originally posted on Thursday, March 23, 2017
