61*

Last Sunday was my birthday.  I am now sixty-one years old.

That’s hard for me to believe.  In my mind, I feel like I’m still fairly young.  Until, of course, I get around people who actually are young.  Then, I realize that things that don’t seem all that long ago to me happened before they were born.  

I wonder sometimes what I must look like to younger people.  I especially wonder what I must look like to the kids in my youth group.  I was just finally getting used to the fact that I was old enough to be their father.  Now, I’m old enough to be their grandfather.

Sixty-one.  Think of all the changes that have happened in the world since I was born.  Dwight Eisenhower was the president.  No one had heard of Vietnam.  There were only sixteen major league baseball teams.  The Dodgers had just played their first season in Los Angeles.  There was only one major league sports team in Minnesota, and it was the NBA’s Minneapolis Lakers.  People still used manual typewriters.  A telephone was something that was attached to the wall, and the receiver had a cord.  In fact, some people didn’t even have a dial--they still had party lines.  Television was mostly black and white, and around here you were lucky if you got three channels.  Space flight was still a far-fetched dream.  And I could go on and on and on.

Sixty-one years.  It’s a long time, in human terms.  In God’s terms, of course, it’s nothing at all.  The Bible tells us that to God, a thousand years are but a single day.  Sixty-one years to God is what?  A long lunch?

And the truth is, I don’t really wish I was younger.  I’m quite happy with who I am and where I am and what I’m doing.  I am fortunate to still have very good health--I have no serious problems, and don’t even have anything that hurts on a regular basis yet.  I was able to ride my bicycle ten miles or so regularly this summer and am able to use my exercise glider regularly this winter.  I still have a good energy level.  I’m able to do work that’s meaningful and that I enjoy.  I’m able to do that work in a place I love being in.  And I’m able to do that work with wonderful people who are great to work with.

When you get right down to it, there’s not a lot more you can ask out of life than that.  It’s like it says in the third chapter of Ecclesiastes:  to eat and drink and to find satisfaction in your work is a gift from God.  I am enjoying that gift, and will continue to enjoy it for as long as God gives it to me.

So, happy birthday to me!  I hope you had a wonderful and blessed Christmas, too.  And may we all have a Happy New Year.