A year closer to maturity in spirit and body
A year closer to reaping fruit of investments
A year closer to illness free life
A year closer to realizing our dreams
A year closer to see our children grow up
A year closer to see the joy of aging
A year closer to retirement
A year closer to end of an era
A year closer to see the joy of salvation
A year closer to complete restoration
A year closer to spiritual transformation
A year closer to experiencing new things
A year closer to any kind of hope we had
A year closer to the Future
The list goes on……
Take time and add some on your list too. When you still have time you can look back or look forward to improve, if you are still up and able to read this. When the time ends you have no more time left in you. All our time would be our past someday.
In some way, peeking back at times that was gone, would bring forth a new hope, appreciating the time of our life. There will be tons of people whose year doesn’t go well, somehow, lost in the throes of life. A year is just a number. And a block of some years changes our perspective of living.
For me, at my personal level, the number of my hospital visits were trimmed down a bit. I did not set a single foot on Imaging Centers this year! Although I had to endure the pain and uneasiness every single day, it was worth living.
There are many times when my physical strength was unable to follow the mind. There are times when my physique simply drops in the corner of the room. The soothing pain is almost unbearable. But there is an upside; the feeling of gratitude after the pain subsides, it feels good.
Yet there are very few happenings in daily life. I was unable to lead my family in the forefront. It was difficult sticking to a dream. Simply clinging to the hope, sometimes, was hard to get by. There are times when the days are dark.
The best part is that there’s an upside to everything.
Being alive simply doesn’t end there, with the pains and adversities. The comfort of the Lord surrounded me, when in need. Tears of joy accompany such times. When I’m in the valley of wilderness His rod and staff comforts me. I feel blessed because I was not consumed because of His mercy.
The journey was more of a rollercoaster ride. The ups and downs are befitting as well as benefitting, at least to me, although there’s no light shining out from me.
In due course of time and my illness, I realized that I have no nothing: no good health, no wealth, no job, no wisdom, and no good quality you can look for in a man. Still then, the Grace of God sustains me.
Every year-end brought in some kind of retrospection in my life. Had my father not passed away, we’d be having an important talk. There are times we’d share our everything at those father-son talks. But that’s no more a possibility; they are a thing of the past now.
“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom,” prayed Moses, the man of God. (Psalms 90:12)
In the preceding verses of His prayer, Moses talked of the frailty or fallibility of human life. There’s nothing much to value in this life, what we achieved is only by the grace of God. Life is like a new grass of the morning; but by evening it is dry and withered.
Each day is a gift, each year a bigger gift. Numbering our days rather than our wealth and achievement, in the midst of adversity, would bring wisdom to man. The kind of wisdom not found in the books of man but solely in Him, our God.
If God’s presence does not go with us there will be no point going on into a new year ahead. Yes, God’s presence will never leave us. His presence will go with us, and He will give us rest. (Ref. Exodus 33:12-17)
Let’s end herewith, the last four verses, from the prayer of Moses. As we move a year closer, let this be our prayer:
Psalms 90: 14-17
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,
That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
for as many years as we have seen trouble.
May your deeds be shown to your servants,
your splendor to their children.
May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us;
establish the work of our hands for us—
yes, establish the work of our hands.
Amen!
