Abbey von Gohren, your days are numbered

Please do not be alarmed at the title of this blog.

This is a well-known fact, one that I happen to be okay with. What I just happened to find out this week is that last year, I hit one heck of a milestone: 10,000 days. Yup. On October 20, 2006, I turned over the ol' ticker from 9,999 days to 10,000. Meaningless trivia? Perhaps. Or not...

So teach us to number our days,
that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.

Hmm. How is mortality tied to wisdom? It took me a while to think it through. At first glance, it seems a bit morbid to be wrapped up in such thoughts. Our time on this earth is limited. Also, it is also unknown to us when it ends. Another cheery scriptural meditation of mortality tolls through my head: "man knoweth not his time." If we are cognizant of these things, what could possibly emerge besides gloom and doom?

How about joy, thankfulness, and hope?

Oddly enough, these are a remarkably short step from the previous paragraph. Let's try it out. As I sit here, I am bathed in the light of my 10,238th day and so thankful to be here. What an astoundingly beautiful life we lead. God's love, good friends, dear family, delicious food. A veritable bowl of cherries. Le temps des cerises.

But what about a day with less sunshine? Flip back a few years, for example, when my uncle passed away from cancer. Actually, quite a number from both our families and circle of friends passed or fell ill within a few years for heart-wrenching, devastating reasons. Did I still number my days? You better believe it. When my soul hit bottom, it landed on one hard but solid truth. This life is temporary, so I had better put my hope in the eternal.

There is an old saying: "she's so heavenly-minded, she's no earthly good." I've always felt instinctively that there is a logical misstep here, but have never been able to pinpoint exactly what it is. I think, however, it has something to do with numbering our days. If the poor, long-criticized girl in the proverb truly had heaven in mind, she would count each day on earth as a gift. She shouldn't get such a bad rap. Future joy is inextricably linked to our benefiting from the joys in the present.

Speaking of joys in the present, I'd like to thank the Lord for piles of delicious mushrooms fried and tossed with steak, gnocchi, and bleu cheese by a very loving husband on my birthday (i.e. my 883,612,800th second, by the way**). I'd also like to thank Him for pushing away the exhausting humidity by a day full of exciting rainstorms, complete with wind gusts, and sunbursts. And I should probably mention how grateful I am for family and friends that pray and a God who answers...with astounding alacrity as of late, it seems. All this, and He still tacks on another day. Amazing.



**Don't forget to count the leap years, for all of you out there who are already doing the math.