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How long will we live? According to an article in PARADE Magazine a few
years ago, human life expectancy averaged around 18 years from the
Bronze Age to the time of the Roman Empire. By 1900, it had gradually
inched forward to around 50 years.
During the past hundred years, life expectancy has shot forward another
30 years. The Social Security actuarial table shows that a child born
in 2007 can expect to life until eighty. Many who study aging believe
that the life span can still increase significantly, but few believe it
will ever pass 115 years even if most of today’s fatal diseases are
eliminated.
Psalm 90:10 says, “The length of our days is seventy years, or eighty if
we have the strength…they quickly pass, and we fly away.” Scientists
and Biblical writers agree: although the number of years we live may
increase, we will all face death sometime.
Perhaps a greater question than how long we will live is, “What will we
do with the life that we have left?” God wants the rest of our life to
be meaningful and fulfilling. Jesus said, “I have come that you may
have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)
Some time ago, a story appeared in GUIDEPOSTS magazine about a woman who
was turning forty. She was very unhappy and was feeling very old. As a
girl, she had always wanted to learn to ride horses, but had never had
the opportunity. Now she was taking her daughter for her first horseback
riding lesson. At least her daughter would learn, she thought.
But it only added to her depression. She felt like her life was nearly
over, and that it would always be incomplete because she had not
fulfilled her childhood dreams.
Later that day, she found a little booklet that her daughter had made
when she was an eight-year-old third grader. It was about the
daughter’s life to that point. Across the front was written, “The Me
Book.” There were eight pages, each with a picture – one for each year
of her daughter’s life.
The mother slowly turned through the pages. It made her even sadder.
Her daughter was so young and she was so old. She came to the last
page. She expected it to say, “THE END.” But instead, in bold childish
letters, was written, “THE BEGINNING.”
Suddenly, sunshine broke into the mother’s life again. Her own life
wasn’t ending; it was just beginning. Her attitude changed. She asked
her daughter’s teacher to give her horseback riding lessons. Soon she,
too, was in the saddle, riding around the track.
Regardless of the number of years you have lived, you are not at the
end. You are at the beginning! In spite of failures or frustrations in
the past, Jesus offers you a change to begin anew. "If anyone is in
Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2
Corinthians 5:17)
Paul Jetter, Upper Valley Community Church |
