I read such a great verse yesterday in Deuteronomy 6. It starts off with such a simple phrase, "When your son asks you in time......" Our children want to know what the Bible means. They want to know what "testimonies and the statutes and the rules" are that "the Lord has commanded you". They will also want to know all of our stories and how the Bible even applies to us and to them. Verse 21 goes on and says, "then you shall say to your son, 'We were Pharoah's slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharoah and all his household, before our eyes.'" Yesterday, as I read this, I realized the younger four know some of the stories, but not all of them, so I took some time to recall a few of the stories and the reason I told them wasn't because they asked, but because one day their children may ask them and I wanted them to know what to say! "Then you shall say to your son...." That phrase implies, "You better tell them!" Tell them what?! Like I said, all the stories, all the miracles, how we were rescued from slavery.....
So many years ago when the older 3 were little and the 4th child was on the way, we had just started homeschooling and I could see how it was getting harder and harder each day for my husband to go to work for the long commute. The restlessness was there and so the children and I began to pray that Daddy would be able to come home somehow, to start his own business. The very long story short was that he got a miraculous contract, allowing him to quit his job and come home. The time he had with the kids for those 12 years was amazing. So many miracles happened during that time. I told them about that time....
After many years of on again/off again work, the contracts started to dry up and we knew that he would need to look for work again which was a very hard decision to make. I told them yesterday about the blueberry picking miracle. That was the day I went blueberry picking with a friend, not knowing why I was even going with this particular friend. It was the first day of a fast where I was crying out to God to show us what to do on behalf of my husband. That day she and I got in a long conversation about being debt-free, my husband's work situation, etc. She was the one who suggested he apply to the college. I had just assumed he never could without a Master's or Ph.d. I went home to tell him my great idea and found out he already had applied! It was the most amazing "coincidence"! He obviously got the job and here we are today, always so grateful for the provision of work and the miracles that happened to get us there. I told them that story....
We know he ultimately wants to retire and so now we are praying about what that will look like. Ideally it would be amazing if he could retire and work out of the home (that might sound like an oxymoron). As his big birthday approaches, I started to think more and more about the actual number he is turning. Ok, follow along with my crazy thinking....it all ties in to what I believe are exciting things for his next season of life as God continues to write stories in our life.
I love numbers in the Bible. I love their significance. I don't think they are coincidence at all. In the Old Testament, men aren't allowed to be in battles fighting until they are 20 years old. Though we consider young people adults at age 18, in the Bible it seems to be 20. I started thinking about that for my husband. He was considered to be a man at 20. I then added my favourite Biblical number - 40 - this brought me to the age he will be turning in June - 60. I got so excited. The reason forty is such a cool number is because of what it seems to mean, over and over, in the Bible. Every time the number 40 occurs in Scripture, something amazing always happens immediately after. With Noah, it was 40 days and nights of rain. Then, the world was reborn, a new earth was created in a way - something new was about to happen. With Moses, he spent 40 years in Midian. This whole time he was being prepared to be the leader of the Israelites to take them out of slavery. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years before they entered into the Promised Land. Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness before His ministry began. This is where I started to get excited. When I consider the past forty years of my husband's life, I'm convinced God has been preparing him for something, even now in his "old age". I am so excited about this birthday for him. I believe God is going to do something "new" in his life. It could be related to all the crazy projects and businesses he's taking on from the winery to the garden, to the courses he's teaching, or some combination of them all. I do pray that it will involve him being home again more, being around the kids more, perhaps one day being a father-in-law or even a grandfather. It could be ministry in some way, involved in our community more....I have no idea, but this feeling of excitement and anticipation is growing in me and so yesterday as I was sharing all the stories with the younger four, I told them all these thoughts. And just like I did with the older 4 years ago, I had the kids pray specifically for their dad. We prayed about his future, about what God has in store for him, about what the new thing could be, thanking God for how He's been preparing him these 40 years. For so many getting old is awful, scary and a dreaded, depressing stage of life. I prayed hard against that. I long for his future to be exciting and full and, I believe, as Christians especially, we can live the abundant life now and always, right up until God takes us, no matter what age we are. Both my parents and my in-laws are living proof of this.
I shared this with the kids, reminding them of how God has worked "signs and wonders" and has used his "mighty arm" and "outstretched hand" over and over again in our lives. We asked that He would keep doing this on our behalf and on behalf of RM specifically. As a result of this I walked around yesterday with a sense of that anticipation, not dread. At the very least, he will be one of the fittest 60 year olds. He and I, as part of our Lent challenge, have taken on a 12 week fitness regimen that will take him right up to his 60th birthday. We have no plans to stop, so hopefully spiritually, physically, and emotionally we'll both be ready for whatever is ahead.
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