Day: March 11, 2024

So teach us to number our days,
That we may gain a heart of wisdom.
– Psalm 90:12

Math was never my best subject in school. It wasn’t my worst, but I definitely wasn’t acing every test. Simple math was fine; statistics were fun. Geometry made perfect sense; algebra made none. Calculus made my brain melt, and I think I’ve been impaired ever since. Destined to be an accountant, never I was. (How is my Master Yoda dialect?) God was merciful to not call me into a math-heavy area of service.

We could talk for a while about the significance of numbers in scripture. The Bible records numbers in a variety of ways. God numbers the tribes of his people, the days of Creation, the number of fish caught post-resurrection (John 21:11), and a host of other things. Obviously numbers matter. Here in Psalm 90, God mentions numbers, among them seventy and eighty. As the Bible frames it, these are the anticipated years of our lifespan. Of course, this is simply observational. Our years may surpass these numbers by many years. Sadly, they may fall short by many years. We just don’t know.

Here is a number: 22,510. As of March 11, 2024 this is the number of days that have comprised my life on this earth. It sounds like a long time, doesn’t it? If I had thought about it fifty years ago, this number would have sounded astronomical. Looking back, it isn’t terribly long. The psalmist prayerfully petitions the Lord to help us “number our days.” Obviously I can update my number with each sunrise, but this probably isn’t what the psalmist has in mind. More likely it is a prayer for perspective, an awareness of the brevity of our life. James 4:14 tells us, “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”

Wisdom reminds us that our span of life is limited. You might be inclined to receive this as depressing news. Please don’t. It is a call for us to remember that each day we receive is God’s gift to us, a gift intended for good. We can use it to comfort the disheartened, to demonstrate unconditional love, to spend our energy in service to someone else, to show grace to those who really don’t deserve it (which is the definition of grace). In all this and more we can be agents of God’s Kingdom, shining beams of light into a dark world.

God has given you another day. What will you make of it?

(If you are curious, you can visit www.timeanddate.com to calculate the number of your days.)