A birthday wish

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There are some days where I literally feel myself ageing.

Today was one such day, as I spent the entire morning and afternoon running errands to serve different people. I returned to the library, hot and exhausted. I took stock of all the things I had to do for the rest of the day – teach a class, edit something someone needs in a hurry, write up a testimony, also needed urgently, prepare materials to help our staff improve word recognition, put the finishing touches to all the lesson plans for Module 2 for another team to use, and somehow still find the mental capacity to plan activities for a visitor coming next week.

I paced in the garden to clear my mind and to escape from the heat of a blackout. That’s when I felt myself ageing, felt my energy and strength being poured out to serve others.

And then, I read the bible and came to Psalm 103:5. After listing all the different things that he was thankful for, the psalmist declared that God did all that, “so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s”. 

What is normally dissipated and spent is renewed in God. Just when you thought the best is over, God works, and brings forth new life and zeal. It reminded me of John 2, when Jesus changed water into wine at a wedding feast. In so doing, he reversed the usual order of things, as seen from the way the master of the feast responded.

“Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!” 

Just as everyone was expecting low-quality, cheap wine, Jesus brought out the best vintage wine ever. In Him, the best is yet to be, and even youth can be renewed...and that shall be my belated birthday wish.