I usually don't bother to think much about my birthday, besides trying to decide where to eat with the family. Coz it's just another 365 days to add to my life...But this year, I noticed an interesting detail...I turned 65 on 6/5/25. For some, numbers are for buying lottery tickets. For me, sometimes it's God telling me something He wants me to be aware of.
Even biblically, numbers are more than just figures . There's a discernable pattern of numbers being used repeatedly to convey meaning beyond their literal numerical value. It's called gematria where Hebrew or Greek letters are assigned numerical values, and used in the analysis of biblical texts. Like 5 is the number of grace, 6 the number representing man. Straightaway I "caught" it - I am a human living by and in God's grace. I am still breathing after 65 years purely by His grace. I bumped into a friend who lives behind my street during my early morning cycle, and she told me her husband just had a heart attack. Too much stress and too much smoking (which he had hidden from her all this while.) She was the one who alerted me about the sink-hole that appeared suddenly on one of the main roads, where she knows I regularly cycle. She tells me lately there was another sink-hole near some rich man's house.
Recalling back that terrible mishap where an Indian lady was swallowed up by a sinkhole in a busy street right in the heart of KL city, truly our lives on earth can just be gone in the blink of an eye, whatever we may be doing in that moment, wherever we are doesn't matter. The ground can open up, planes can explode, accidents happen everyday, people can die anywhere anytime - in broad daylight, on the road, in their own houses. Man, life can get pretty depressing, scary even. We can take every precaution to keep ourselves safe , healthy, strong, etc etc but actually we never know if today is gonna be our last day alive on earth. That's kinda morbid stuff to muse upon on a birthday.
But I am not scared; living in fear of this, that or the other is no way to live. And so I choose to remember, my life is preserved by God's grace, and it cannot be taken away one second earlier than He decides. Not only am I truly safe; I am saved. I don't need to worry that all the bad stuff I do in my life on earth will condemn me to everlasting hell. So whether it's life now or life thereafter, I am truly held in God's loving and mighty hand. That's a most reassuring thought when I wake up every morning, not just on my birthday. But there was more to turning 65, which added together equals 11. I see a picture; 1 Jesus, and 1 me, walking together. For me, it's so beautiful. God isn't somewhere "out there" (dunno where). He's really with me, according to His promise, He never leaves nor forsakes me. How comforting to remember His word in Isaiah 49:15-16 Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands....: how precious: I am engraved on God's own hands.
The week before my birthday, I went for a 3 days' overseas prayer gathering together with another sister. She was the one who booked our flights which involved 2 budget airlines across countries. Amazingly for the first time in my life travelling by air, on our flight out, we were seated right up in front, at row 2. Those spots are usually reserved or need to pay extra . Yet the online check-in system assigned them to us. Our return flight was another pleasant unexpected surprise. Our plane actually departed very early, since everybody was already on board, and we touched down in KL 40 minutes ahead of schedule - that's very good time . Coming from an airline well-known for their flight delays, even cancellations, this was really a very very smooth journey leaving and returning.
One day before the date, my son and a close friend wished me happy birthday. Somehow they got the dates mixed up . I didn't mind at all, but it did get me thinking. I was getting advance greetings from not one, but two people. And I heard the whisper in my ear - this is your season of favor, promotion and acceleration into new things. God never fails to amaze me with His timing, for at the start of 2025, I had been asking what's in store for me this year? Only now, as I turned 65, He shows me so many things, seemingly unrelated, yet all adding up to advance blessings.
Truly, the blessings had started even earlier before my birthday, leading up from March into Passover season in April. Out of the blue, an invit came to learn the harp. Something I had always wanted to do, but never quite found the time or the means. This time was right. I didn't even need to buy a harp; for the trainer lent me hers. So 2 hours a week, over 6 Sundays, some 11 ladies plucked strings together. Although Passover is well past, the blessing continues for me, as I got to keep the harp indefinitely. I am now doing something I had never dreamed I could do so easily, so fast. For me it's a promotion into deeper worship, getting up close and personal with Jesus, the Lover and Beloved of my soul. And that's the greatest highest blessing of all. Beyond any fancy meal, beyond any expensive present, beyond what any human can wish or do for me (all of which I am most grateful for ), it's only the true living God Himself who can and has indeed satisfied the deepest longings of this 65 year old heart.
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