My Year of Jubilee

Today I turn fifty years old. A few months back, when I thought about it, my heart sighed...but then, I remembered a lesson I learned from a woman who was in our church, Nana Rainey. She truly celebrated each year. She would announce, "God has given me 80 wonderful years!" I loved her joy and enthusiasm about life. I determined that I wanted to be like her and embrace each birthday as a gift from God.

I have decided (by the suggestion from a friend) to claim this year as my Jubilee...a time of rejoicing, a time of starting again. Leviticus 25 describes God's requirement of the Jews to set aside every 50th year as a time to let the fields be fallow, to return all land to its original owner and to release anyone being hired as a servant. It was a time of rejoicing and renewal.

My life is at a point when things are starting over. My husband and I are alone again. Babies...well, grandbabies are being expected soon. I don't know what this year (and this new season of my life) holds for me. I'm not so optimistic to foolishly say that there won't be any hard times, but I'm going to look for all the blessings that God will give me this year. I just know that it is going to be a great year, because God made it, and He does all things well.

"For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you; ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field." Lev. 25:12

I am already counting my blessings: my loving parents, my faithful husband, my eight wonderful children, my friends, ...

Here's a poem that Evelyn Bryant (a dear woman in our church) wrote. It's her special homemade gift to me.

I count my life
By friends I've made.
Some have gone
Some have stayed.
Each one is like
A candle lit,
To hold the darkness
off a bit.<