All the Days Ordained for Me

I tried to ignore it but found out that if someone knows and posts a note on Facebook there is no way to avoid it. I have received scores of notes wishing me a Happy Birthday. Thanks to all.

I was born 56 years ago today in Pasadena, California. I’ve always been amazed that my maternal grandparents sold their business and home in Orange City, Iowa and moved to California when I was born. They were significant people in my life and even though they died in 1984, I am forever marked by their life-changing encounter with Christ.

The most memorable quality of my grandfather was his commitment to God’s Word. I can remember celebrating many birthdays when, after we finished eating, Grandpa would say, “let me share something from the Word.”

Then he would begin from memory. Specifically I can recall that he memorized the whole Gospel of John and all of Hebrews, 1 Peter, and James. It was all in King James and in my mind I can still hear him reciting Psalm 139. Birthdays are a great occasion to read and pray Psalm 139. I’ve included my favorite lines from the NIV:

1 You have searched me, LORD,
   and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
   you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
   you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
   you, LORD, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
   and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
   too lofty for me to attain.

13 For you created my inmost being;
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
   your works are wonderful,
   I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
   when I was made in the secret place,
   when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
   all the days ordained for me were written in your book
   before one of them came to be.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
   test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
   and lead me in the way everlasting.