Birthday Reflections

 “...He is your life and the length of your days..."  - Deut. 30:20

 
Today is my birthday.
For 43 years, I’ve breathed Your air, been refreshed by Your gracious gifts of food and water, and always had a place to lay my head at night.
 
Your Word has intersected with every one of those 43 years in one way or another, my constant companion in good and bad times. The written Word has given me the Word-Made-Flesh.
 
You have given me blessings that people in other places and centuries could only dream of: freedom and education, a mind that could learn how to read, and eyeglasses to make that possible.
 
You gave me a wonderful family growing up, a husband of stability and children of joy, and health to enjoy life together. So many kind people have mirrored You in one way or another.
 
Beyond this life, You give me the promise of eternity beholding Your face, the end for which I was made and long for deeper than I want anything else. That is more sure than anything visible on earth.
 

What shall my response be to these treasures? Surely not grand promises, for You know my shortcomings. Let me simply live - in this moment and the moments to come - the words of Moses and Micah:

 
That you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days... (Deuteronomy 30:20)
 
He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)