Number Our Days

Caloy Dio. 2012.08.18

Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. You return man to dust and say, Return, O children of man! For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants! Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!
Psalm 90 ESV

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I would like to extend my deepest condolences to the Estacaan family for the passing of Tatay Junto Nanay Cora, to the children Oliver, Christine, Catherine and Bibang. And to the grandchildren as wellto Ivan, Even, Andrei and Audrey. I feel for your loss. I also personally lost a loved one. My mother died way too young, at age 50 way back in 1989. She was diagnosed with cancer of the cervix two years earlier, and was not expected to survive more than 6 months. The Lord was gracious to her and gave her two years. She never got to see the weddings of her children. She never got to meet her grandchildren. She would have loved by wife. She would have been a doting grandmother to my children. But it was not meant to be. There were also come very recent deaths in the family. My brother-in-law, the brother of my wife, died two years ago. He suffered a stroke and did not survive it. My father-in-law followed suit just last year, after suffering a heart attack.

The Big Questions

It is during these times when questions about life come up. Questions like, why does God take away our loved ones? Why do people we love have to die? Tatay suffered so much in the past few months, and every time Bibang would tell us about his condition, we would offer our personal prayers to God that He would be merciful to Tatay and grant him healing. Through all these, Bibang has shared to me that Tatay had gone through the process of being reconciled with God, so I can assure you that Tatay is now in a much better place. In a sense, if it can be small consolation, we can be relieved a bit that Tatay doesnt have to suffer anymore. But if Tatay were not at all sick, isnt it true that we would never want him to die? That we would want him to live forever? We know deep in our hearts that people we love are not meant to die. We will never forget. They will always have a special place in our hearts. Our love for them will never end.

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I know this well. Its been 23 years since my mom died. Weve survived the loss and weve all moved on. But there are moments when waves of nostalgic remembrance would flood my soul, and I would wish that she was still alive. Like when I got married, I would have wanted my mom to be there. Or when my wife gave birth to my moms first grandchild, I just knew that she would have been the first in line to pick up the baby and cradle her in her arms. Or even the time when I got very sick some ten years ago. Of course my wife was there beside me. But deep in my heart I wanted by mom to be there to take care of me as well. Our longing for the people we love never ends. Our desire is to be with them forever. We long for their presence even years after theyve gone.

Mothers Never Forget All Her Children

Have you ever noticed that mothers never forget all their children? Ask any mother, how many children she has, and she will always count even the ones who died. If you ask me how many children I have, I would say threeKerene, Benj and Aaron. But ask my wife and she will give a different answer. She will say she has five children in allthree are alive, one we lost due to a blighted ovum (a fertilized egg that did not develop), and another we lost due to ectopic pregnancy (a fertilized egg that got stuck in the fallopian tube). Ask any mother who lost a child, and the lost child will always be counted among her children. There will always be a picture of that child in a sacred place in the house. Why do they do that? Because a loved one is always alive in their hearts.

Growing Wiser, but Getting Older

Heres another mystery: Why is it that the wiser in life we get, the shorter the days remaining to apply that wisdom? When we were young, life was simpler. It was very easy to be happy. We were nave, we didnt really know what life was about, but we didnt care. All we cared about was that we knew who loved us, that we have food to eat, and that we have much time to play. As we go older, as we entered the teen years, life became more like an adventure. There was so much to explore, so much learn. We didnt know yet who we are, but we had time to

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experiment, and even make mistakes. And people generally forgave even the most stupid mistakes wed commit. Then we got to the 20s and life became a challenge. We started to dream big dreams, even if we didnt know how to get there, and we didnt have all the necessary abilities to accomplish them, but nobody could tell us we couldnt do what we set out to do. Bold, brave, but nave. At 30s we become much more mature, much more realistic. Weve begun counting the youthful dreams that will never be, but still confident of the things that are still within reach. Then, we hit the 40s, the period in life when people say life truly begins. And true enough, at our 40s weve seen enough of life and we already know what is essential, and weve shed off the childish things. Weve taken on the greater load of responsibilities in life. Indeed, its a good time to really start living. But we discover that we do not have that much energy anymore, and our bodies actually start to creak. The days start to get shorter, the hours seem to pass by too fast. Im 47, getting much closer to the mid-century mark. And Ive become very conscious of my body not being as strong or as healthy as I once was. There are so many things that Id like to do, but I simply dont have the time and the strength to do all of them. Soon enough, were in our 50s, and were rushing to do the most with the available time. Then the 60s come along and we really begin to come to terms with our mortality. 70s-80s arrive, and weve seen the whole span of life pass by, and weve achieved wisdom. But the irony is that just as soon as weve acquired the wisdom to live, thats the time when we have to prepare ourselves to die. It does not make sense! Just when were finally understanding what life is all about, thats the time we leave it! Something does not add up. There is a secret to life that we cant seem to find in this life. Thats because the answer lies beyond this life.

Meant to Live Forever

The writer of Ecclesiastes made this provocative comment about life:

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He (God) has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
(Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV) King Solomon, towards the end of his life began talking about eternity. The word used in Hebrew refers to what we call in perspective drawing the vanishing point. Its when you look at the horizon, there is a point, far, far away when everything disappears from view. It is the metaphor for whats beyond this life. I think what he means by this is that God has placed in the hearts of people the truth that we, Gods special creation, were meant for something beyond this life. You see, if we will read Gods story of creationGenesis in the Old Testament of the Bible we discover that God made provision for the first man and woman to live without end. God placed every tree that bears fruit in the Garden of Eden for food to eat, including the tree of Life. But God commanded them not to eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, for

in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." (Genesis 2:17)
It implies that if they did not eat from this fruit, they will never die. The original intention of God for man, if they remained obedient to His command, was to never die and live in the presence of God forever. But we may all have heard of the story. The serpent tempted Eve, and she ate of the forbidden fruit, and she gave some to Adam, and just as they gained the knowledge of good and evil, they also realized they had to hide from God. And they were banished from the presence of God, and along with all their descendants from thereon. We all came from Adam and Eve. We all have the same desire for the knowledge of good and evil, but also the same sense of separation from God. But deeply embedded in our soul is also the desire not to die, but to live forever. But not only that, while we are not often aware of it, there is this deep desire in our hearts to be with God forever. Havent you noticed that we encounter some very big and seemingly insurmountable problem, challenges that are beyond our human capacity can handle, our first instinct is to call out to God and pray?

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There is a joke about a group of atheists who occupied all the seats of a plane on their way to an atheist convention. The plane encountered problems mid-flight and started to plunge straight down. After a harrowing 60 seconds, the pilot was able to take control of the plane again, and the stewards were surprised to see all the atheists in the plane praying. When we begin to face the possibility of death, we cannot avoid facing the truth of God.

The Mystery of Death

Death is such a great mystery to us. We all have no idea what exactly happens to people to leave this life. Is there a heaven? Is there a hell? We clutch on what our faith tells us because we do not know anyone who died and came back to life. There are people who claim to have done just that. There are accident victims, or patients who flatlined in the hospital and died and came back to life. Their stories are vey similar. They say that that they find themselves getting out of their body, and seeing things that other people are doing, things that no one would have known if they were not present. Then they find themselves rushing towards a light, and as soon as they enter this light, they find themselves in the presence of a Divine Being full of love and peace. And the stories are basically the same, they are told it is not yet their time, so they are sent back to their bodies, and in an instant they feel so much pain, and they would much rather go back to where they went at the time of death, and they have a sense that they are given a new lease in life. And you get a sense of the truth of what they experienced in the 180 degree turn in their liveshow they have become more loving, more generous, more sacrificial after their brush with death. Was that heaven? Perhaps. The stories from so diverse people telling basically the same things gives us some reason to seriously consider that what they went through was probably true.

Paradise
When Jesus was crucified on the cross he referred to a place where he would take the repentant thief who was crucified along with him.

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And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And he said to him, Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.
(Luke 23:42-43 ESV) This is such an assuring thought. Even a common criminal, a thief has a place in Paradise. But he did not get this without any condition. He first had to acknowledge who Jesus was. He said remember me when you come into your kingdom. He acknowledged Jesus to be King. He believe Jesus to the The Messiah, the promised anointed King of Israel. The Lord. We in the 21st century urban Metro Manila have problems understanding what this means. We no longer know what a king means. We do not know how to relate to a Lord. A king is the single most powerful person in a realm, in a kingdom. He owns everything, he controls everything. What he says is law. His authority does not come from any man. He derives his authority from God himself who grants him the right to rule. People under him are all subjects, and their very lives are under the sovereign control of the king. Whatever the king says, the subjects are to obey, with gladness of heart, without question. In the Philippines, where Presidents are either elected to office or taken down by People Power, we no longer know how to submit to a ruler, to a king, to a Lord. Even PNoy says we are his Boss. The closest to a subject and King relationship in our experience is perhaps the relationship between a debtor of a huge debt to a creditor. You are not free. You are beholden to the one you owe. You are practically a slave of one you owe money to. The thief on the cross knew he owed his allegiance to the crucified King. And he was given a reward for this allegiance. He would have life beyond death. In Paradise. We all have access to this reward ourselves. In Romans 10:9-10, this is what the Apostle Paul said:

if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Tatay Jun gave back his allegiance to the Lord and King before he died. Thats why we have assurance of where he is right now. He is in Paradise. He is saved. He is at rest with the King.
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But Wait, Theres More

But if you think were going to spend eternity in Paradise, in Gods Heavenly place, youre mistaken. In fact this is where there is so much confusion among many religions. Heaven is great, but its not the end of the world. You see, when Jesus came to earth 2000 years ago and then went back to heaven, he said there is a time when He is coming back.

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.
John 14:1-4 ESV A time is coming when Jesus will come back, and he will finally, fully establish his Kingdom on earth, and finally Gods will is done on earth as in heaven. And He is preparing a place for those who follow Him, for those who believe Him to be Lord and King. This world where we live today, this world that is filled with sickness, and evil, and troubles, and death, it will soon be restored to Gods original perfect world. And just as God originally wanted to dwell with his created humans in the Garden of Eden. A time is coming, when Jesus comes back, when finally God will dwell with His people forever in a new heaven and a new earth.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words
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are trustworthy and true." And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
Revelation 21:1-7 Gods will is for people to live forever free from suffering, from pain, from sickness and from death. Gods will is for people to live on earth full of life without end. And Gods will is to dwell with his beloved people. "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell

with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
And this will all happen when Jesus finally returns to recreate the universe into a new heaven and a new earth. And before that happens, all of Gods creation, is called upon to recognize Jesus as the promised King, and that we bow down to him as Lord of our lives. Are we prepared for this? I pray that we will all have spiritual eyes that can see Gods truth. And that we may all come before the throne of Lord Jesus and bow down before His as sovereign Lord and King.

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