This is my birthday. This page was written years ago, but edited again during my 93rd year. What does one say on his birthday that is not self-oriented or aggrandizing in some way? What is not largely emotional? What does one say that does not appear contrived, lacking appropriate humility? Everything we do ought to have humility in it. Humility aids long life. If it does not, we may question that God is the author or fashioner of anything that is honorable about us. To be humble is to assent to truth. We are unsatisfactory on our own. God offers life worth and meaning. When he does we gain immortal life, spiritual mystery, some authority, and lasting joy.
There is something wonderful and humorous about making it to the tenth decade. The word in Hebrew we translate eighty grew out of the idea of plumpness which is to say that it exceeded the blessing of the projected seventy years. With the addition of ten years, the individual enjoyed the plumpness of life – more than might be needed and more than the majority of others receive.
Even if life extends for seventy or eighty or more years according to the Psalmist the result is expected – death. Persons born during future years will forget, if they can know, that we ever lived. Quickly now, recite the names or recall the memories of ten of your forebears prior to your grandparents. Can you name ten persons, any ten, who lived a century ago – recent history? Specifically, they are forgotten except for significant achievers. Even Shakespeare was taken with the entrance/exit in his players. Coming onstage, he noted, actors exit on the other side.
The Psalmist provided the answer we need. Teach us to order our days rightly, that we may enter the gate of wisdom. (Psalm 90:13 NEB) The point is that we should not really be concerned about being enshrined in memories, but that we make of this life what it is meant to be. Life has meaning, that we know only partially, both mortal and immortal. Faith is where firm wisdom begins. Wisdom is always meant for life balance and maturity. We take the total of what occurs for us, partly for remembrance, but first for lessons embedded there that may be used for ourselves and others in the future, for improved beliefs, problem solving and peace. Some of the dumbest things we ever do can generate wisdom we activate for our future beliefs, conducts and legacy.
Remember me is not to be addressed to our children and friends as it is to be addressed to God. It is a spiritual concept: Oh Lord, remember me when you enter your kingdom. The request came from a dying thief, who in the hours of his death shifted rather firmly from railing against the person dying next to him to a prayer: Remember me when you come into your kingdom. The answer came immediately: This day you will be with me in paradise. That promise may not apply for me today, because I will not likely die today, but it will apply, and that day can’t be far distant no matter what my age may be. It is a promise for all who will believe. My life of ninety plus years is prologue to immortality, the remembrance of me by God. It may be that God is saying back, I remember you, have you remembered me? My best birthday gift from God is that other natal day in the new birth provided in Christ. We were formed in our mothers’ wombs for another life, which life began on a natal day. It is interesting that some cultures count a person’s age from the moment of conception, and the emergence into open nature is a continuance of that life. The teaching of Scripture is similar in that those who have Christ’s life already possess immortality, and will simply put off mortality for immortality on death’s day. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020