Calendar Girl

"Is today the 26th or 27th?" I asked my granddaughter. All day I had been thinking it was the 26th, assuming everyone else was off a day, but I guess it was me. I was going by the small wooden block calendar that has to be turned every day, and I'm the only one who changes it. At the first of the month, it seems to take forever for the single digit dates to go by, but when they hit the 15th or so, they start flying, like a car going downhill!

It's the same way with growing older. Every birthday is eagerly anticipated, it seems, until you reach the magic age of 21. Before you know it, you're 30, you look around and you're 40, suddenly you find yourself 60, then you hit 70 like a rocket! One thing about aging, though, we have plenty of company. With the greying of the baby boomers and the decline of the birth rate, the elderly are about to become the largest part of the population!

I couldn't help noticing a couple of very senior citizens who were checking out at Walmart today. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but if I had been a lip reader, I'm sure I'd have gotten an ear full (or eye full). The wife was bending toward her husband and with exaggerated mouth movements and deliberate speech she tried to convey something important to him. I know the feeling. It's either be misunderstood, or speak loudly and emphatically something you wanted to say privately.

We may lose many things physically as we get older, but one thing we are supposed to gain is wisdom. Psalm 90:10 tells us, "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by strength they be fourscore years... it is soon cut off, and we fly away." Verse 12 says, "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."

When my oldest daughter, Julie, was in kindergarten, one day she was examining December's calendar page (counting the days to Christmas, I'm sure) and noticed there were no pages under it. "Mama!" she said to me in alarm, "We are almost out of days!" To allay her fears, I quickly put up the new year's calendar.

Many today would agree with her, Mayan calendar aside, but as we approach (or pass!) our threescore years and ten, we have to admit she was right--we are running out of days, personally. We would be wise to agree with Moses, the author of the 90th Psalm, when he says in verse 14, "O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may be glad and rejoice all our days." And again in verse 17, "And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it."