So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.—Psalm 90:12 (NAS)
One day, I looked at my life as though it were a clock face. Imagining myself living to 96 years, beginning at 12, and going once around with eight years between numbers, I placed myself smack between seven and eight. I was on the waning edge of time.
This imagery awakened in me a rich awareness of the gift of years already lived and the yet-to-be-explored opportunity in the ones left. I was reminded of a favorite Bible verse: “Abraham breathed his last and died in a ripe old age, an old man and satisfied with life” (Genesis 25:8, NAS).
It’s the “satisfied with life” part—not how long I live—that speaks to me in this passage. How did he come to this fullness of feeling? Abraham endured some hard years. He was asked to leave all that was familiar and trek to an unknown land. He experienced family strife. Yet he kept trust with the God Who first spoke to him saying, “And I will bless you, and make your name great” (Genesis 12:2, NAS).
Moses wrote in Psalm 90 (NAS) about “numbering our days”—paying attention to them, growing and learning from them, making them meaningful for ourselves and others—in order to present (literally bring in) to God a “heart of wisdom.”
Both Abraham and Moses were able to meet God at the end of their days, knowing they had lived well the gift of their years—trusting Him, becoming wise in Him, fulfilling His purpose for them. Only one phrase describes how that must feel: satisfied with life.
Lord, I so want to “bring in” satisfying years, lived gratefully in Your name.
