It has been my lot in life to celebrate my birthday just three days into the new year. That means I have little time to recover from the painful exercise of assessing my performance in the last year of the 1900s. I try to soothe my forlorn heart with the hope of a better year ahead when–wham!–the calendar tells me I’m another year older already. And I’m just three days into the new year!
The Old Book is right when it describes life in our little world as “a vapor,” “a shadow,” “a tale that is told.” The scientists speak of nanoseconds and pica-seconds–slivers of time that only slice the few short years we are given into more pieces, but cannot serve up any more of the stuff.
You may not realize just how far I’ve travelled in my, gulp, 49 years on the planet. My Northwest Airlines Frequent Flyer program update just arrived, telling me that since I signed up I have accumulated over 300,000 miles on their airline. But that doesn’t include the other airlines, or car travel, or walking for that matter. Yet adding them all together is only the beginning.
The earth spins once on its axis every 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.091 seconds. During that time it covers about 7,900 miles. So in my almost half a century, I’ve covered 141,388,275 miles through the cycle of day and night, give or take a few pirouettes. But there’s more.
I also have made 49 return trips around the sun. Each journey hurtles me and my six billion fellow passengers at an average speed of 66,600 miles an hour. Each circuit is 595 million miles long! So, let’s see–that makes 29,155,000,000 miles around the sun since I gave my first cry in 1951. Dizzy yet?
Without a moment’s vertigo, we find that our whole solar system is also spinning like a small compartment on a giant ferris wheel, the Milky Way. Revolving around the center of our galaxy, at the breathtaking speed of 155 miles per second, I don’t expect to make a full revolution before I have to leave compartment earth (one orbit is said to take 250 million years). Just the same, my 49-year’s journey adds about 239,679,972,000 miles to the total. If only I could get travel points!
The God who put these heavenly bodies in their place, set them spinning, and sustains them in their courses, is the God who also offers to control our daily movements through time and space as well. “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way” (Ps. 37:23).
Now let me ask a question. Who is the he and to whom does the his refer in the latter half of the verse? The New King James, by capitalizing the He, concludes that it is the Lord delighting in the way of the good man. Whatever this verse means, we know that is true from other passages: “Those who are of a perverse heart are an abomination to the Lord, but the blameless in their ways are His delight.” “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal truthfully are His delight.” “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight” (Prov. 11:20; 12:22; 15:8).
The other side of the coin ought to be just as shiny. When He directs our steps, we find delight in His “good…acceptable and perfect will” (Rom. 12:2).
Standing outside on a clear night, we look up into the velvet sky and see the history of God’s dealings with the stars. We see them not as they are but as they have been, under the watchful care of their Maker. And He, in the stillness, would ask us, “Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?” (Job 38:31-33).
Good questions! If He does so well directing everything else in the universe, why wouldn’t I delight in His way in my life too?