How Old Am I Anyway?

In a just a few hours I will hit a significant milestone in my life (at least for me); turning the corner into being a half century young. It's a bit of an odd thing, especially when I think back to my early teenage years and recall lying on my bed at night, contemplating the meaning of life (even and especially at that age), never really believing I'd live long enough to venture into the 21st century. I don't know why I felt that way, I just did. I had visions of what life might be like around the year 1999. Of course, they were nothing like what I thought. God has given me so much more than I ever imagined, and most of all He's given me hope that this is just the beginning. Really though, the beginning for me started long before I'd ever breathed my first on this place, because before I was formed "Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Thy book they were written, The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them."(Psalm 139:16) So, from His perspective, I have absolutely no idea how old I am. There's one thing I know for certain though, and that's that I have only just begun, both on this earth and in the heavens to come.

I was talking to a wise older man last Thanksgiving and he told me (and Victoria) that we were now heading into the most productive years of our lives. Looking back at how God has changed our lives in just two short years with the addition of our sweet daughters from China, and looking ahead to what He has in store for us with them is just one area of "productivity" that I could have never constructed on my own. Poppy and Willow, coupled with Austin, Annie and Barret (together with Victoria) are treasures that I pray will yield boundless joy in the Kingdom for now and into eternity. Likewise, the foretaste of heaven divine here on earth gives me great promise for a future that no human mind can fathom; a seat at the banquet table with the One who's created and known my frame from before there was a there.

I enter into these next years more excited and anticipatory than ever. This is a good day.

Gratefully in Christ,

Tom