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Where Did They Go?

Every time I order or sign up for something online, I have to enter my birthday. I’m fine with that until I get the the year of birth! There is something very sobering about having to scroll down until you get to your particular birth year. As you scroll down, the years just whiz by. In my case, 59 of them. From 2010 to 1951 is a long way. Fifty nine years, how could that be? I don’t feel like I should be old. I don’t feel ready for the senior citizen’s discounts. I still ride horses several times a week and deal with adolescent boys every day. For the most part I got here relatively unscathed. I’m healthy for my age and other than getting stiff and joint aches and pains from all my old injuries, I’m good. I consider that blessed. So, how did it happen? How did I all the sudden arrive at 59? I think there has been a cosmic miscalculation. Did I doze off for a few years? Where did all those years go?


The Word tells us over and over that this life is short. My grandmother died at 97. That is not a short life by any means. But I know that at the end of her life she had the same thoughts that I am having. No matter how many years we live, they pass at warp speed and leave us wondering where they could have gone. This life in scripture is referred to as a flower that fades, a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away, and grass that withers. I could almost be depressed thinking about it.


It would be easy for me to be filled with regret and longing. Regret for all the time I’ve wasted and more importantly for all the precious moments that I failed to see or take advantage of. How many God given opportunities did I fail to recognize? How many one-of-a-kind teachable moments with my babies was I too busy to take advantage of? How many times did laundry, cleaning, and cooking take precedence over playing? I could easily long for the years of my youth, wishing I could go back. Guilt could be my constant companion as I think of all the moments, hours, days, and years that passed me by without my awareness. However, the awesome God I serve, is not a God of guilt. I did the best I knew how at the time. Just like most all of us do.


The truth is that no matter how full we live this life, it still goes quickly. No matter how diligent we are to take advantage of every available moment that comes, we can’t hold on the the years. Even if we are successful at weeding out the unnecessary and simplifying our lives, our time on this earth quickly passes. Our youth rapidly vanishes, our bodies age, and our lives slip by. This life is short, no way around it! Sound discouraging, it’s actually not. Every day that slips through our fingers here on this earth is one day that we move closer to eternity. This earth and this life was never intended to be what we cling to. As my mother always told me, “We’re just camping here”. Our hope is in Jesus, and He is preparing a home beyond imagination for us. Why would we not look with eager anticipation toward the time when we will not age, or know sadness or pain, and our earthly bodies will be replaced with a glorious one?


I admit sometimes when I scroll through all those years that are now behind me, I am a little tempted to be sad. More than anything I just wonder where they went! But another way to look at it is that for every year that scrolls by, I am moving swiftly toward living in His light in the home He has prepared for me without any of the sadness or brokenness of this world. Praise God that He longs for me to live with Him and that Jesus waits to welcome me.


James 4:14

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.


John 14:1 & 2

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.


Hebrews 11:16

Instead, they were longing for a better country-a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.




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