So soon it is over!

Monday 2-23-15 (Home) 

Scripture reading:   Num 12-13    Ps 90     Mark 2

S.  Ps 90:2 You are God, without beginning or end. Vs 4 For you, a thousand years are as yesterday! They are like a few hours! Vs 10 Seventy years are given to us!  Some may even reach eighty.  But even the best of these years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we are gone. Vs14 Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives.  Vs16 Let us see your miracles again; let our children see your glory at work. NLT

O. These five excerpts taken from Psalm 90 speak to me today.  They say, “Life on this spinning planet is so brief.  We just get started and it’s all over.”  In sharp contrast, God is eternal, without beginning or end.  My mind cannot wrap itself around “without beginning and without end”.  Everything within our sphere of knowledge has a beginning, somewhere.  And even nice things have an end.  Where did God come from?  He didn’t come from anywhere.  He always was!  Okay, I confess my mind can’t go there.  But I have noticed that as time passes, life seems shorter. 

A. When I was a little child it seemed like forever between one Christmas and the next.  Now the Christmases and birthdays seem to stack up in a row.  When I look back, it seems like only yesterday when Frances and I were falling in love, when I was starting to college, when I was ordained as a minister, when our precious little blonde Ronny was starting to walk.  What has happened? 

P.  My God, where did the years go?  Can I already be wrapping it up?  It’s been wonderful, Lord… filled to the brim with excitement and fulfillment, but now time seems to fly by.  Days then weeks, months, years, decades!  I have been privileged to witness Your unfailing love.  I have lived accompanied by Your miracles.  What am I passing on to the next generation?  Oh God, don’t let me fail You!  I pray with King David, “Let us see your miracles again; let our children see your glory at work.”  Religion can become such a stale ritual, totally separate from our earthy, real lives… unless we and our children witness Your miracles personally and see Your glory at work daily in our lives. 

Only one life, ‘twill soon be past

Only what’s done for Christ will last

Yes, we have only one life here on this planet, but a better one awaits us who have placed our faith in Christ.  Then time and death shall be no more.  Rev 21:4-5  “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.  And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. KJV  Let’s hear a “Hallelujah!”

Ralph