How much do you value something that will never run out? When we sleep at night, we take for granted that clean air will fill the room around us and that there will be enough for us to make it until morning. Someone who is drowning, on the other hand, will not accept this as a simple given. Every movement for that person must be made in order to keep breathing.

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 90:12

Moses, in the Psalm, speaks to the Lord on behalf of a stubborn people. They knew suffering and salvation, misery and manna but they still lacked that all-important perspective. They didn’t know the value of what they had, and so they didn’t mind wasting it.

Time doesn’t go on forever, as far as our mortal lives go. Do we value it? If we do, we can know a little better how God wants us to use our days he has given us.

Ethan Kirl