Counting Days
The Bible instructs us to number our days. (Psalm 90:12) Obediently, I have done it. On Wednesday, June 19, 2024, I will complete 32,508 days of life. In case you are wondering, I did not literally count them; I googled them.
Despite the thousands of days past, I still remember many of those days. One of my earliest recollections occurred in New Orleans. I could not have been more than four years old. I came downstairs; and my father, who had been watching me, was nowhere in sight. I began to cry fearfully. Turns out Dad had stepped outside to speak with a friend. When he returned, he found me crying. I vividly remember he drew me aside and assured me he would never leave me. I stopped crying.
In those early days, my mother attended a Catholic church. I remember going to Mass with her and drinking from the holy water fount, much to the chagrin of the adults in the line behind me.
We moved from New Orleans while I was very young. Still, I have fond recollections of relatives I did not get to know well---Aunt Alice, Uncle DeeDee, my humble Cajun Aunt Fausteen, and others who were not family but related to us as closely as family.
A move to Mississippi and subsequent illness prevented my finishing first grade “on time.” Those were cruel days, and my report card read “Failed.” I went around asking various family members what it said. I laugh about it today. Obviously, if I could not read the word “failed,” I was not ready to be promoted.
Of course, I cannot recall every day of my thirty-two thousand plus days. There were good days like when my brother returned from the war. And there were bad days like when Grandpa died at our house following a long illness with tuberculosis.
Up and down, good and bad, that’s life. The Christian life can be similar. Many Christians are so elated when they accept Jesus as Savior, they are on “cloud nine.” Soon, however, they learn that being a Christian in this time and place is challenging. God has not promised His children an easy road. What He promised was to walk with us. And, like my father told me, He will never leave us.
