59

 59

59 is the 17^th prime number. It is an Einstein prime with no imaginary part and real part of the form 3n-1… whatever that means!

A regular icosahedron has 59 stellations… what?

It’s the last minute in a given hour and the last second in a given minute… which sounds rather profound therefore I like it.

It’s the approximate number of days in 2 lunar months – not that we use lunar months – it just sounds long.

It’s the atomic number of praseodymium – a rare earth metal we rarely talk about… and a word we can likely not say 3 times fast.

59 may also be the title of a future Adele album…

And it is too darn many candles to put on a cake without starting a fire.

In the last 59 years – my lifetime - we’ve seen the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK assassinated, the beginning of Medicare and other social programs, Civil Rights, Mao’s Cultural Revolution – where between 500,000 to 2,000,000 people were killed for not agreeing with the “party line”.

Israel’s Six-Day War, MLK assassinated, the Moon landing, Vietnam, Roe v. Wade – sanctioning the murder of the unborn, Nixon’s resignation, The Fall of Saigon, the Concorde – where travel improved as opposed to delayed, home computers, the mass suicide of cultists in Jonestown, Guyana – origin of the phrase “Kool-Aid drinkers”.

The beginning of Islamic Iran, the Reagan Revolution, AIDS, the Internet, a chemical disaster in India - killing 15,000 and causing a generation of birth defects, the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle, 1987’s Black Monday, the Fall of the Berlin Wall, a free democratic Poland.

Operation Desert Shield, the end of the Cold War, the beginning of the European Union, Amazon, a Terror attack in Oklahoma City, Cloning, Google, NATO’s first independent strike in Kosovo, the opening of the International Space Station, 9/11, Homeland Security and the War on Terror, Iraq defeated, Facebook, Katrina, Saddam Hussein hanged.

The iPhone, the 2008 financial crisis, Obama, Deepwater Horizon oil spill off the coast of Louisiana, Bin Laden killed, Snowden leaks, Russia stealing the Crimea from Ukraine, NASA spacecraft New Horizons flies past Pluto, Trump, 3 massive hurricanes in 4 weeks – Harvey, Irma, and Maria – cause immense damage to Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico.

California wildfires consume 18,500 homes and take 88 lives, Hong Kong protests, COVID-19, BLM riots, the Afghanistan debacle, and the erosion of our civil rights.

There’s a lot of tragedy and victory in that list – and I know it’s not comprehensive!

We could say 59 years is a long time – yet – For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it passes by, or as a watch in the night… For all our days have declined in Your fury; we have finished our years like a sigh (Psalm 90:4&9)

It seems like a good number for assessment. It seems like a long time.

Every birthday for the last few years I’ve had to do math to figure out how old I am. Something I don’t appreciate doing first thing in the morning - resulting in a feeling of disgust and horror – disgust at having to do math upon awakening and horror because I did it correctly!

I told my aunt that I was feeling my age and walking around like an old man. She scoffed and said she wasn’t walking at all except with a walker.

She’s 92 – she can scoff.

I realized that I’ve lived over half the years I’m probably going to live – I may have 20 more years if I’m strong and I may not.

As my husband likes to remind me, “Fat folk don’t get old…”

That’s sobering – the amount of time I may have left - not the fat part.

It would be obtuse to not make an assessment of life when 74% of what you’re allotted is likely over…

As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years, yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; for soon it is gone and we fly away (Psalm 90:10).

Moses is making an assessment in Psalm 90. He may have written the psalm near the end of the Israelites’ forty years of wandering when the older generation of the faithless were dying off.

He starts off reflecting on God’s eternal nature, then our weakness, and prays for His mercy.

Anyone who looks at history should be unable to deny our propensity to sin. Anyone that seriously looks at their own life would have to admit to labor and sorrow – not that there isn’t joy as well. But life generally is a mixed bag and it is good that there is something more.

Moses prays…

So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:12).

We only get so much time – please LORD, make it count. Let us turn around and give you back the days you have allotted us to do what you want us to do and be how you want us to be.

O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days (Psalm 90:14).

Help us remember that You, LORD, are enough. Open our eyes to your mercy, grace, kindness, and faithful love for us. Let us be satisfied and glad and joyful with a song in our hearts despite all our failings because You are more than what we will ever be and You are all we need.

Make us glad according to the days You have afflicted us, and the years we have seen evil (Psalm 90:15)

Let us see the blessings You give us in this life and thank You for them – and let them be more evident than the trouble of this life.

Let your work appear to Your servants and your majesty to their children (Psalm 90:16).

Let Your purposes be clear to us, in trial and in blessing – and make Yourself real to our children.

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; and confirm for us the work of our hands; Yes, confirm the work of our hands (Psalm 90:17).

Give us favor LORD – make our lives count for Your purposes – truly, we can do nothing without You – so establish us in Your will. Let us not spin our wheels, but by Your mercy give our lives meaning.

That’s enough for 59 – don’t you think?