It’s a quick walk on a fine thread, this gift of life, this privilege of breath and beating heart and strength to step ahead. So many disappear, flash out of sight, thread cut off before its final length unwinds. We shout “No!,” and cry, and move along, subdued, with more awareness of the dangers, right and left, above and underneath. It’s a wonder that we live at all, considering the tragic possibilities inherent in our threads’ trajectories. And yet, we do, and marvel that we share the lavish brilliance of sunrise, sunset, moonglow, star sparks, the precious wash of rain and winds to dry us off again, the vibrant greens of grasses and the trees, and sunshine on the panoply of swimming, crawling, flying, running, purring, playing living things on their own threads. Woven all together, we are the tapestry of Earth. Creation. Devotion. Delinquence. Destruction. Survival. Commotion. Celebration. Revival. Departure. Graduation. Just one thing holds it together and keeps it winding towards a meaningful conclusion, resolution of stories silenced early with translation of anomalies into the fabric of Truth – one thing: the Hand of God. I rest in this. And breathe. And vow to use the energy of every heartbeat to contribute to the Grand Design.
I will soon turn 73 years old. There is nothing like a birthday to remind someone at my age that life is but a breath, “a quick walk on a fine thread.” We never know when the thread will break or come to its end as it unwinds from the spool chosen for it. But we know this: God knows!
A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed. 6 So look away from him and let him alone, till he has put in his time like a hired laborer. (Job 14:5-6 NIV)
Job was distraught at the brevity of life—he just wanted to enjoy the rest of the days allotted to him, not sit them out in distress. This is a normal human reaction.
But there is another way to understand God’s knowledge of these details:
Your eyes saw me when I was inside the womb. All the days ordained for me were recorded in your scroll before one of them came into existence. (Ps. 139:16 NET)
He knows us this intimately, from the moment the embryo began to develop to its birth, its life, and its passing. Nothing is hidden from him, and when we know him as the Father who loves us, this is reassuring. I would not want to just be drifting through life without his attention and protection!
We just remembered my mom’s passing from this earth, June 25th, eight years ago. I remember seeing that woman come to the end of her thread, a person who had served her Lord valiantly through tough assignments then was gradually withering, her body losing its agility, her thoughts losing clarity. Her life ended in a phase when service that had been meaningful to her was gone. We could tell she longed for it when her mind would focus on finding her “lost daughter,” Kayleen, my younger sister who had gone to heaven before her mother. When Mom finally entered heaven I am confident that Jesus showed her that her daughter was there, not lost, and in perfect health! About six months later, Dad joined her there in the Joy. They were finally free from those last weary days at the end of their threads.
Will my life end like that, with frayed bits of string no longer coherent? I don’t know, but I do know this: God will accomplish his purpose in me before my days are over. The essential goal is that I be transformed to be like Jesus, living out that purpose:
And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose, 29 because those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified. (Rom. 8:28-30 NET)
This does not mean that life will be a smooth, easy flow. He is working in us so that we would grow to be like Jesus, genuine members of his Family. If we have become Jesus Followers we know that we have forgiveness because he has declared us just, made righteous in his sight by our repentance at the cross. And that is not the end point—it is life forever with him! That is what it means that we are “glorified”:
“[They] can be confident that God works in all the circumstances of their lives to accomplish his good purpose for them. This is one of the great promises of Scripture. “The good” is not necessarily what believers might think is good but is what God deems will be best to assist their growth into the image of Christ (v. 29) and bring them to final glory (v. 30). called. God’s “effectual” calling, whereby he powerfully draws sinners into relationship with him.”[1]
That loving God is acquainted with the details of our lives, and is not just neutral, watching from afar. He is at work in us, through all that happens. We know that hard times can draw us into greater dependence on him, which after all is how it should always be! The thrills of goodness in daily life should lift our hearts in praise to the Creator for variety in nature and people and languages and adventures. We just need to walk with him, talk with him, and draw ever closer to him.
I look back on 73 years and I see his fingerprints on my life, molding me and preparing me through so many people and events. Of course I am underestimating how much he’s done; only he really knows the details. But I am grateful for all of it. And I know that however much time I have left here, he will be accomplishing his plans. So what is important for me is to be grateful for each day he gives me and live it to the fullest. May we, his children, all learn increasingly how to do that!
[1] Douglas J. Moo, “The Letters and Revelation,” in NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, ed. D. A. Carson (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018), 2034.
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