Teach Us to Number Our Days

The email came as a shock. One of our family’s doctors had been gone for one appointment. We didn’t think anything of it. He was in his forties. His office had pictures of him and his smiling wife and children on the walls. Maybe he was on vacation or had that day off.

But then we got the email: He died. That doctor who always seemed full of life, that doctor who had big dreams for his young family, that doctor got cancer. Treatments didn’t work. He died. It was a shock.

We never know, do we? We never know how much time we have left. Sure, we like to think we’re invincible. We like to tell ourselves that what happens to so many others won’t happen to us. But we never know, do we? All the education… All the money… All the family support… It can’t stop death.

That’s why 3,500 years ago, Moses prayed to God: “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). Wisdom comes through numbering our days. Wisdom comes through realizing how frail we are. Wisdom comes from depending on God for everything.

Since we never know when our day will come, today is the day to confess our sins. Today is the day to believe in Jesus. Today is the day to love our families. Today is the day to let our lights shine. May God teach us to number our days.

Pastor Nathan