Good grief, do I feel old! Just this weekend my husband’s littlest brother (Uncle Reid to my kids) came for a visit…..and can I just again say I feelso OLD!!?!???! This boy I met when he was toddling in diapers and couldn’t talk is now a grown man. I thought I was just 24 myself…or so…..and here he is older than my perception of me? When I was a teenager I had occasion to be forced into singing this song: “Sunrise, Sunset.” I don’t remember all the lyrics, but I remember it depressed me, both the tune and the words: “Is this the little boy I carried, Is this the little girl at play? I don’t remember growing older, when did they? Sunrise, sunset, swiftly fly the years….” Who wrote this song? Who are these people for whom years FLY SWIFTLY. Years. Fly. Swiftly? No they don’t!!! An afternoon was an eternity of possibility when I was so begrudgingly singing along to a dumb song. And now I live the truth of it, the years are flying swiftly. The somber tone resonates with my realization.
Where do you go for comfort from the swiftly flying years??? Why do I have a tinge of sadness at the brevity of it all?
1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
3 You turn men back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, O sons of men.”
4 For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.
5 You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning- though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered.
7 We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation.
8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan. The length of our days is seventy years— or eighty, if we have the strength;
yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. Who knows the power of your anger? For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.
12 Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
13 Relent, O LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants.
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble.
16 May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children.
17 May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us— yes, establish the work of our hands.
Thank you Moses for writing Psalm 90, for capturing the realities and purpose of life, and to you Lord, for being our everlasting God, for your unfailing love. Please, please teach me to number my days. There’s a number to them. A limit. Give me a heart of wisdom, and show your splendor to my children, I pray. And thank you for a wonderful but way-too-short visit with “Uncle” Reid, sweet as the day I first saw him. We love you RMP! Come again soon.
http://womenlivingwell-courtney.blogspot.com/2010/09/making-your-home-haven-fall-challenge.html
