Ugh, ready or not, here it comes! Not ANOTHER birthday. Of course, not everyone approaches a birthday with such disdain. For young tots, it is a joyous occasion, filled with balloons, presents, cake, and ice cream, all combining to push the calmest of toddlers into hyper-drive as they bask in the center of attention. Time leisurely passes in those early, carefree years, and then we hear those words, I’m ten, Mom! Double digits! Next, those crazy teen years are upon us, when time slows to a crawl for an anxious, impatient adolescent, anticipating finally being handed those car keys, working their first job, graduating, deciding on a career path, meeting that special someone. Soon the threshold of adulthood is crossed, twenty-one, those childlike birthdays reluctantly yielding to adulthood. Life is now occupied with jobs, family, bills, and responsibility. Time is gaining velocity, on a fast track, birthdays marked by plateau years…thirty, forty, fifty, sixty… the nest empties, grandchildren are birthed, and the days become as “a shadow that passeth away.”
The Bible describes our life as a “vapour,” a mist, an exhalation, a smoke that vanishes quickly. “For my days are consumed like smoke…” whisked away by a gentle breeze or dispersed by the the heat of the day. A comparison is also made to grass, “As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone;” sounds a bit like the colorful blossoms in backyard, dying as summer wanes and winter approaches. Wow, should we find this all a tad depressing? Not at all, at least for those whose life rests in the hand of the King of kings.
Thankfully, I have had a second birthday, a born-again birthday, which opened the door to Heaven and eternal life for me on February 16, 1975. On that day, at the foot of an old rugged cross, I was born anew. My life may pass by quickly here on earth, but soon this “…corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” My Father is preparing a place for me, a home in glory, where time will be no more, a place where pain and sin will lose its grip, where I will enjoy an eternity of joy and contentment with my Father! What a glorious anticipation!
In light of that blessed hope to come, I want my life here to count for Christ, to impact those in my path, to build up my brothers and sisters following behind me. Regardless of how many more candles I get to add to my birthday cake, I pray that, with God’s strength, I will invest each year, each moment, into storing up treasure in heaven.
Philippians 1:21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Thank You, Lord, for every physical birthday I have and for all the blessing You have bestowed on me. Thank You for my life, help me to make it count for eternity.