64 Years

I'm on holiday at the moment with my family, and at the sea front today my grandpa sat on a bench overlooking the beach next to a lady who had recently lost her husband of 64 years. She was lost without him, but kept saying how much she had to be thankful for - to have shared such a wonderful life with him. When she discovered that my grandpa was a church minister she opened up and expressed her delight at being able to share with somebody who had some idea of what she was going through. She had personal faith but needed encouraging and reminding of the hope that she has for her husband and for herself. 

                               This was the very same view out to sea! Beautiful.
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This is a personal side-note of mine, but I couldn't help but think that no doubt, this woman will have spent the majority of those 64 years living selflessly for her husband, making allowances and growing in patience. But she was so happy and looked back on their years together with such fondness that there was no real sense in what she was saying that she had sacrificed anything at all. It made me think how today we are encouraged by our culture to seek personal pleasure and put ourselves first in relationships, and a lot of marriages break down because the other person does not live up to the other's expectations as the years go by. Yet, despite this woman's huge loss and sense of emptiness without her husband, spending 64 years of her life with him was worth the pain she faced currently and any that she had faced in the past. What an inspiration! 

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As they continued to talk about how they were both getting older and time was slipping by, my grandpa began to share this Bible verse with her, "As thy days..." and she completed the verse with him "...so shall thy strength be."  (I was sitting close by and holding back the tears at this point...) 

The verse above in contemporary English would read a little less poetically as, "Your strength will equal your days." (Deut. 33:25) This can be read in an earthly sense as meaning the length of your life will equal the amount of strength you possess within yourself - which would make sense to most of us! So when we feel strong in ourselves, whether that be physically or emotionally, we live on to fight another day. But there's more to it than that!

This verse also has a spiritual meaning, which I believe speaks of our inward strength that is sourced from Christ within us. To perceive the spiritual truth involves flipping the verse around to the older version again: "As your days, so shall your strength be." When you invite Jesus into your life, you receive the promise of spending eternity in His presence. That's an everlasting number of days, which means: our strength is also everlasting and imperishable. We don't have to be nearing the end of our days to find hope in this verse! 


Whatever comes our way in life, we will get through it and experience better days as we realise the enormity of the strength that we possess. We can overcome any obstacle, no matter how huge, the more we grasp hold of the strength that God gives us. And we don't have to wait 'til this life is over and struggle through waiting for a brighter day. We can experience the empowering strength of God all of the time.

The lady remarked to my grandpa, "Of all the people you could have sat next to today, you chose to sit next to me." - Mere coincidence? I don't think so :)

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians: 16-18)