Sunday, August 2, 2015

Threescore years and ten (3)

Coincidentally, one of the gifts that Carol gave me was a wall plaque.  She is rather particular about keeping walls uncluttered (as with the rest of the house apart from my garden shed which she has given up on!) but she has already put the plaque on the wall facing our stairs.  Every time I descend I am greeted by these words: THIS IS THE DAY.


Carol says she wanted me to have it as a challenge about seeing each day as a gift and using it well.  Though it was bought in a thoroughly secular shop (!) it has echoes of another psalm too:  This is the day that the Lord has made (Psalm 118:24) which is all together much more positive than Psalm 90!  You know how that verse continues 'let us rejoice and be glad in it.' Only after I had posted my last reflection did it dawn on me that I now had a daily reminder to number my days aright!  Preachers are always looking for ways to reinforce and apply messages and this is the perfect one.


Carol also found another text (though I am very unsure which translation it comes from). Live happily with the woman you love through the fleeting days of your life, for the wife God gives you is your best reward down here for all your earthly toil (Eccles. 9:9)  Probably she would have preferred to have hung that up as a plaque if it had been available!.

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