“For you created me in my inmost being;
You knit me together in my mother’s womb,
I praise you because I am fearfully and
wonderfully made.”—Psalm 139:16
I saw an
advertisement in a magazine for a company that was selling “birthday plaques”. A pretty neat idea, actually. They looked up your birthday in the Bible,
using your special day as chapter and verse.
Intrigued, I started to do a little research about my day, April 19 or
4/19.
John 4:19 was kind of a let
down. My birthday fell smack dab in the
middle of the story of the woman at the well.
Too much sin, there. Not
something I’d want to hang on my wall. So,
I took that as a cautionary tale and went hunting in another Gospel.
Mark 4:19
wasn’t a whole lot better. It appeared
in the parable of the sower. “but the
worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other
things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.” Ouch. Although vines twisting and weaving their way
around the edge of a pretty oak plague was appealing, the verse just
wasn’t. Deceitfulness, etc. Don’t
particularly care for that one. Let’s
move on.
Luke 4:19 had
things looking up. Jesus is quoting a
verse from Psalm 91. “The Spirit of the
Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the
prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Sounds promising. I like this one better than the other two!
And then, it
hit me. All of those verses do apply to my life!
I was that woman at the well,
lost in my sin and shame. I did receive the message of Jesus’ love
for me, as the parable of the sower tells, but have I allowed the things of
this world to distract me? Have I
allowed the Spirit of God to be choked, making me unfruitful? Finally, reading Luke 4:19, I remember the author of my salvation, the
One who was sent to release me from sin, and—as my birthday verse joyously
announces—proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor!
But the best
was yet to come. Matthew 4:19. “Come follow me”, Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” He found me in my sin, He fed me His
Word, freed me from my guilt and shame, and now He sends me out to share this
wonderful news with the whole world.
(Did I mention that my maiden name
is Fisher? Coincidence?
Nope!)
“All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of
them came to be.”—Psalm 139:16
He knew my
birthday before I came to be. He’s known
me forever. He knows me through
eternity. Thank you, Father.
Father, I praise You that I am so
wonderfully made, that you have known me since before time itself began. In the words of the psalmist, “Lead me in the
way everlasting.” Send me into the world
to share Your wonderful news with those still in darkness.
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