Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you. Ps. 139:16-18 (NIV)
Dear heavenly Father, as vast as the sum of my years seems to me today, on my birthday, vaster and greater are my thoughts of you. My years are calculated merely in terms of decades, but if I tried to “do the math” about your glory and grace, I’d have to count every grain of sand on every beach, every star is every galaxy, and all every particle of dust in the universe. With David I honestly say, “How precious to me are your thoughts” (Ps. 139:17).
Father, it’s a source of great peace and freedom to know that you’ve ordained all our days for us, your children; and that you’re writing our stories. You’re the author and perfecter of our faith, and the architect and builder of our lives. That doesn’t feel like robotic fatalism, rather, robust affection—for you are the perfect Father, and you do all things well. I’m thrilled you’re in control. We won’t live one day more, or one day less, than you decree, and nothing can separate us from your love.
Your name is Redeemer, and you’re the God who restores years eaten away by locusts and squandered by our foolishness. Through Jesus, you’re making all things new, including us. Every tear will be wiped away and every wound will be healed.
Father, all I ask is that every day, week, month, or year you’ve decreed for me, will be filled with a greater grasp of the only love that is better than life—your love for us in Jesus. Father, open the curtains ever wider on the heart-liberating, cosmos-transforming goodness of the gospel of your grace. Everything else will take care of itself. So very Amen I pray, in Jesus’ merciful and mighty name.
