Happy Ordination Day!

Psalms 139:16 "Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Thy book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them."

Happy Birthday to me!  Tomorrow, the BIG 6-0!  

A well-formed,  full-figure shape, I am made with girlie substance!  I'm not quite ready for the freezer yet, nor the kiln.  God, the Potter, lovingly shapes me, this lump of clay, into His purpose.  I think He's made me into a few different vessels from time to time. Don't throw me out with the garage sale stuff. I am not ready to be labled an antiquity. I am climbing, but not quite over the hill yet!  

"In the Book, they were written...ALL the days."  Yes, God keeps a journal on me, but instead of filling the pages with my humaness, He writes the things He sees that bring Him glory. He knows the pages where I've struggled, written down the number of tears I've cried and inserted happy faces and heart doodles when His glory is captured.  It's not the word "days" I am looking at when I read this verse. Each day is a day to give Him praise and seek Him in all His goodness. In my sixty years, I have not used every day to my full potential. My share of crummy, bad attitude, "oops God, I am so sorry" days, I know fill several books, outnumber my "righteous" days.  All those days though, are torn from the book and replaced with golden insert pages, one word written by the blood of Jesus on them  Do you know what that word says?  

GRACE 

The word I like in this verse?  ..."Ordained."  I looked it up in Strong's Concordance (In the original Hebrew). It means:  formed, framed, fashioned.  

I like that this birthday girl is still "fashioned" by God.  I've got Soul-Style!  

His grace leaves a marked pattern in my life that I am "ordained" to trace onto others.  

How Vogue is that!  

My thoughts wander to many things as I turn the clock, flip the calendar, blow out the candles...

(wait, another breath please...). 

I am thinking of both my parents who passed away in their sixties.  I think of Heaven a lot anyways but this week I saw the movie, "Heaven is For Real," and my friend asked me an interesting question: 

"What age do you think Timmy is in Heaven?" 

He'll be a little bit of the cute 4 year old, the precocious 10 year old, the entertaining 15 year old, the idealist 20 year old and the passionate 26 year old. What he won't be is the fearful, pain-riddled, scarred, angry young adult.  He'll be the man God intended him to be.  

And I'll strive to do the same...be what God intended me to be, with each new candle I may add.  Oh, trust me, more pages will be torn out and more inserts added with that golden word, GRACE and for that I can only try to live out my days, surrendered and in Thanksgiving.  

And isn't that the ultimate birthday present!  

Thank you Lord for birthdays, both physical and spiritual. May each numbered day ordained for me be a sunrise to your Glory as I await a final sunset. Whatever lies ahead, teach me to continue to trust You in ALL things, and reflect and celebrate Your Amazing Grace in my life, now and forever. Amen.