“Eat the green beans first,” I told my homeschooled grandson. He grinned. He understood immediately what I meant. It really had nothing to do with vegetables, but everything to do with the math.
Like cold green beans next to delicious hot fried chicken, math remained on my grandson’s plate for as long as he could shuffle it around.
Neither he nor I have a love for numbers. Nor for green beans. And when his mother, the great teacher of the home and school, offered a choice between doing math first or something else, well, you get it. He did not choose math first. He shoved it to the corner of his plate.
Have you shoved anything to the corner of your plate recently rather than confront it? If so, you get what I’m talking about.
Moses, the author of Psalm 90, wrote, “So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12 NKJV)
How desperately we need that wisdom which figures each day as God’s.
Life is short, Moses seemed to get that. Life is looooooong. He got that too.
“Give me the math, Lord,” he seemed to ask. “Count the numbers, add them up.”
In every stage of life, whether young or old, the desire tugs, “Let me know what is worth my time and effort and what is not.”
David in Psalm 39 echoes it with, “O Lord, make me know my end, and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!” (Psalm 39:4 ESV)
And it’s a battle. How we like to shove those uncomfortable pieces we don’t enjoy to the side, subtract them from our lives, or at least put them off for another day. It would be kind of nice to make numbers serve us, move them to our advantage. And it’s always preferable to skip the hard stuff and eat the dessert first.
“I’ll do it later.”
“I’m too old.”
“But I’m too young.”
“When the kids are grown.”
“The kids have their own lives.”
“Does what I do matter?”
Like a rushing river, life sometimes overwhelms with its swift fullness. Other times it disappears like a vapor.
But God is a Holy Mathematician.
Making room for the less important and leaving the imperative to languish is opposite of what I should be doing as the number of my days subtract. I need to put on the jets, to feel the urgency, and sometimes eat the green beans first.
“For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, And like a watch in the night.” (Psalm 90:4 NKJV)
If all of time were a big long line, our slots in it would be razor thin. Our numbers small and seemingly insignificant. But God’s math is just, right and perfect. He numbers with purpose, detail, and value. He counts with love and wisdom. He chooses with purpose and import. His math is never off nor wrong.
Which goes to show that our math’s not done yet.
“Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Surely a man goes about as a shadow!” (Psalm 39:5-6 ESV)
Teach us to number our days. Give us the math, Lord.
Jesus calls us to greater devotion, to make our days count. To look beyond what we see, to what will last throughout eternity. He wants to flourish our spiritual growth and for our lives to increasingly model His actions. Each mundane moment.
From when I awake in the morning, to the time I lay my head down to sleep, it all belongs to Him.
With my a grandson’s distaste for math, I recognize the value of minute by minute obedience and the lasting consequence of seemingly insignificant decisions.
God desires the math of our days and the number of our minutes.
There are things I’d rather let slide until tomorrow that God wants me to work on today. Because in fact, I still don’t like math or green beans. But God is a Holy Mathematician, and faithfulness adds up not just in the big stuff, but also in the minuscule.
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