Events of the past two weeks occupy our thoughts like nagging questions and “you can’t make up this story” observations. If I were not a believer in God’s sovereignty, I might dismiss an assassination attempt and a President with diminishing ability dropping out of the race to the top of our nation, and, I might add, the entire world in terms of leadership.
But, I believe God has a plan, and those of us who read scripture know the truth that ambitious runners for office may not. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and He holds the world in His capable hands. James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. And Psalm 103, 5 and 11 reminds us, “He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s. For his unfailing love toward those who fear Him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.”
I’m reading a novel by Amanda Peters called “The Berry Pickers.” It’s a tale of a child abduction and the effects on the family who grieves her absence and the family who raised the child who knows she is in a strange place. Every once in a while she glimpses, then dismisses, the idea that she is not who she thinks she is. She is a stranger in a strange land. This author every once in a while comes up with a “gem” sentence that gives me pause. I just read one and share it today.
This is our daughter-in-love’s birthday, and Ev and I are in our “birthday times too. There’s a lot of time between forty-six and eighty-four, and time passes so very quickly. Here’s a thought for today, and I think I might use it as a writing prompt for my senior memoir writers. It kind of fits what’s happening in the news cycle right now. Here it is, and we might do well to ponder it as we live each day to God’s glory–at least some of us strive to do so. It’s almost Shakespearean. Even he couldn’t have thought up this week’s news events: “Time quickens the older you get as if the universe is trying to push you forward toward the finish line to make room for the younger, the stronger, to take your place.”
I don’t think it’s chance that my two desk calendars agree on the same thought today, of the goodness of the Lord as we challenge the day. Susie Larson in her wonderful “Blessings for Every Day,” says: “May you face today with smile and with hopeful expectancy. May God surprise you with a song that speaks to your heart… May you enjoy a sudden playful moment and enter in with your whole heart. And may you notice that every good gift in your life comes from above. In every season, He gives good gifts to His children.”
So, whether your steps are slowed by age, and you have “senior moments” and remember the days when you could skip and run and dance and cavort (that’s an old-timer’s word) like your agile grandchildren, or when I see touches of grey (like all of mine) sparkling in children’s hair, I recognize the march of age and am thankful for each morning I wake up to God’s sunshine and surprises. It may not be the latest news alert or headline that astonishes me. It may be the genuine thankfulness for God’s riches beyond measure in every decade of my history. Whatever your circumstances today, or the weird things that will make nations’ history chapters, I know who is in charge, and He holds a place for me where eternity is the measure, not a lifespan.
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