Today I was struck with numbers. Last week Stacey and I celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary. Twenty-one years is a good long time to be married (and I'm hoping I'm not even half way to the number I'm headed towards!) At age 41 I no longer consider myself a youngster. When there is a call for young men to help carry our lunch coolers from the bus to our picnic area, I realize that I'm not the first person they are calling. In just under two years Ivanrest Church will celebrate it's 50th birthday. The United States has been independent since 1776. That will be 236 years this coming Fourth of July. Jesus was alive and walking on this earth 2000 years ago, and 800 years before that Hezekiah was rebuilding the temple after the Babylonian captivity. King David was alive about 1000 BC which would be over 3000 years ago and Abraham walked into the land of Canaan about 4000 years ago. These numbers ran through my mind as I walked through the remains of a city in Arad which was built in 2800 BC -- 4800 years ago. It was already abandoned and in ruins 200 years before Abraham! There is also a fortress tower at Arad which dates back to 800 BC -- the time of Hezekiah...it seems so "new" in the shadow of this ancient city. Suddenly 41 doesn't feel old at all!
We fly through so many time periods in our studies here in Israel. We did just in our travels through the Negev Highlands and Negev Desert today. Starting this morning at Mizpe Ramon we saw what remains of a typical house from the era of Abraham. In Avdat we learned about the Nabateans who were influential throughout this area from 100 BC to 100 AD. We also looked at the remains of two Byzantine churches on the site which would bring us all the way forward to 4th or 5th century AD. On the edge of the Zin Valley I visited the burial site of David Ben-Gurion who was the first Prime Minister of modern day Israel. In Beer Sheba we went back to the late 800s BC and saw an illicit worship center here away from Jerusalem which was most certainly torn down by one of the godly kings of Israel (Hezekiah? Josiah?). And then we end at 2800 BC with these amazing ruins in Arad. I don't believe I've ever tried to wrap my mind around that long of a period of history, but that is exactly what I needed to do today as I saw that history laid out in front of me.
It made me think about the extent of God's knowledge and his love. All of these ancient cities were populated by people that God knew and loved. Year after year...century after century...millenium after millenium...people lived and breathed and loved and fought and worked and played and laughed and cried just like I am doing right now. And just like God knows and loves me, so he knew and loved them.
In a way that scope of time made me feel really, really small and insignificant. I am just one person in the length and breadth of all history. My few short years will hardly even register on the timeline of history. Yet, on the other hand, that scope of time made me feel very honored. God is shaping and creating his story here on earth throughout history and he has chosen me to be a part of that story. He didn't have to include me, but he did. He arranged all of the details for my arrival and is designing opportunities for my day each morning when I wake up. I get to be a part of His story. What a privilege!
And I too will leave my mark on history. I know that my footprints in the Negev Desert sand have already been blown away, and I doubt that there will be anything left of my house to excavated 2000 years from now. That isn't the kind of mark I will leave behind. Through God's power and grace, my mark will be left in the lives of the people God has given me to love. I pray that God will use me to leave a spiritual mark on the people he has given me to pastor. I pray that God will use me to leave a spiritual mark on my family -- my wife and children. I pray that God will use me to leave a spiritual mark on anyone he places into my life. And I look forward to the length of eternity that I will have with God celebrating the "excavations" of his good work in the "old city" while I live eternally in the "new city" -- the City of God.
(The pictures are all of the ancient city at Tel-Arad. The last three are of what your house would look like if you lived there.)
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