Thanksgiving Week is always a party with special food preparation and with various family members scheduling time at home during their busy lives and schedules. This year was an extra special party time as we planned a birthday party during this time.
I can always see things that need doing or that I want to have done before our kids come home. And this Thanksgiving was no different. I am the kind of person who makes paper lists, many and often. It gives me a good feeling to be able to cross off one by one the entries that get done. Yea! Do you suppose that God crosses off an item on His list of things that must happen before He is ready to send His Son back to earth to come and take us home, back to heaven? Prophetically we know that there are many things that will or must happen before that loud and grand and awful day!
Before Jesus’s Second Coming, biblical prophecy describes major events that will lead to Christ’s return, like a great apostasy (a falling away from faith), widespread wars, famines, and natural disasters, the rise of the Antichrist who deceives many, cosmic signs (darkened sun/moon, falling stars), the preaching of the gospel globally, the gathering of Israel, and a period of intense Tribulation for believers, culminating in Christ’s triumphant return to defeat evil and judge humanity.
There will be a significant departure from true faith within Christianity, with many false teachers arising. The sun, moon, and stars will show unusual signs, and the earth will experience distress. A period of intense suffering, persecution for believers, and global upheaval (wars, earthquakes, pestilence). The “Man of Lawlessness” appears, makes a covenant with Israel, breaks it, and sets himself up as God. The gospel will be preached to all nations, and people will experience a spiritual awakening.
And then, Believers, both living and resurrected, will be caught up to meet Christ in the air.
My list of things that needed to be done before the birthday weekend was nothing near like or as serious as God’s list. I had many things but none that had to happen. They were more of the housekeeping type. I wanted the sweeping and vacuuming and mopping done. I wanted to get my long-neglected dusting done. There was food to fix, beds to make and how many and where everyone would sleep. And would there even be enough beds? Kitchen cleaned, lots of food to prepare for special breakfasts, at least two large meals and a party meal, shopping to do to make sure that we don’t have to go shopping for last minute forgotten items. And smaller but still necessary tasks like cat litter boxes refreshed, compost bucket dumped, tables ready for more than just the two of us with our bad habits of working around collected clutter—it seemed to be an endless list. As soon as we crossed off one to do item, we added more that we thought of!! Still my list seems rather insignificant compared to God’s list and not nearly as important. My list did not get everything crossed off it. I had to decide that some were more important than others and that it would be okay if some didn’t get done. The list was more important to me than to others. On the other hand, God’s list is very important, and He will make sure that all is in order before the end of life here. The second coming after all is the most important thing and we must be ready for it! We need to make sure that we have everything clean up in our own lives so that we have left nothing undone. I do not want to leave any dirty corners filled with garbage in my life.
Along with a special Thanksgiving and kids and families making their way home to spend the holiday on the farm, my husband had a birthday on the same weekend. His birthday was the number 80! 80 is a big number to have reached! Many people do not even get to celebrate that number. When they have been friends and relatives, it makes you respect having reached that many years old. While I am several years younger than 80, I am old enough to realize that my years are probably numbered. That fact has given me much to think about and consider. Am I ready for my life to end and for the resurrection day? Everyone gets resurrected but when and for what end? I am eagerly looking forward to (hopefully) hugging my mother and father! I must make sure that I am ready.
Planning a birthday party takes—planning! Lots of thinking! There were phone calls about “what are some of Daddy’s special food likes that we could have during the party”. What does he need for presents, who can come and who can’t? and a discussion on how the celebration will continue into the summer when all our family can get together and what special bucket list thing we will do for Garry. Some of the questions made me think really hard. I am not good at planning presents or parties! It took me some hard thinking, and I was glad that I could talk through the ideas because that helped me with my “thinking cap”.
In thinking about the number 80 years, I was led to think about what the Bible says about how old some people were when they were mentioned in the Bible stories. I came up with quite a list. Some were mentioned very early in their lives. Many were Miracle babies. It is interesting to study the birth and infancy of individuals who went on to play pivotal roles in God’s redemptive plan.
Isaac was the son of Abraham and Sarah, born in their old age as a “miracle baby” and a testament to God’s faithfulness to His covenant promise of many descendants. His half-brother was Ishmael and the son of Abraham and Hagar, whose name means “God hears” because God heard Hagar’s cries in the desert.
Jacob and Esau were the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah. Jacob, the younger twin, was described as holding onto Esau’s heel as they were born.
Moses had His life spared from Pharaoh’s decree to kill all Hebrew male infants. His survival and placement in a basket in the Nile River illustrate God’s providential care and plan to raise up a deliverer for Israel. His mother placed him in a basket on the Nile River to save him from the Pharaoh’s order.
Samuel was born to Hannah, a previously barren woman who prayed earnestly for a child, then her son Samuel was dedicated to the Lord’s service in the temple from a young age and became an important prophet.
John the Baptist had his birth foretold by an angel, and he was “filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth” (Luke 1:15), destined to prepare the way for Jesus. He was known for a miraculous conception when his mother, Elizabeth, was well past childbearing age.
Jesus Christ was the central figure of the New Testament, God incarnate, who entered the world as a vulnerable infant in Bethlehem, fulfilling numerous Old Testament prophecies. Jesus was born to the Virgin Mary, as announced by the angel Gabriel and then was a baby during the decree again to kill all male new born children, as was Moses.
We planned and shopped and finally came together to celebrate a life of 80 years. It is an important milestone in the years of one’s life. The Bible promises us 70 or 80 years as the typical human lifespan in Psalms, but this is a description of our earthly life’s shortness, not a guarantee for everyone. The main “promise” is not a specific number of earthly years, but eternal life for those who believe in Jesus Christ.
Psalm 90:10 says, “The days of our years are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble, for they are soon gone…”. This is not given to us as a promise of a specific lifespan but as a realistic observation about how fragile human life is.
Turning 80 years old is a milestone but it doesn’t compare to others!
The Bible features individuals with dramatically different lifespans, from the Pre-Flood Patriarchs living incredibly long lives of over 900 years to Post-Flood people that had their lifespans shortened considerably after the flood.
I was at a loss with how to plan for this important birthday party and keep it secret! I soon realized that I had a resource available that I hadn’t considered the value of. In my list of kids, at least one seems to have qualities as a CEO. He took on the task of organizing everything and I appreciated it. From planning the birthday meal with many things that he knew were “birthday boy” favorites to asking me what the “birthday boy” needed or wanted as gift suggestions and even to getting a BD card for me, and also arranging a future time when everyone in our own family can spend time together and further celebrate with making a life bucket list item happen! Each gift was so appropriate and thoughtful for this particular birthday. It was fun to see how creative each gift was. Each one was appreciated and loved. There was thought put into what was needed and liked and it was amazing to watch. It reminded me that God knew exactly what we would need and provided exactly what we needed. And how he continues to provide for us every day of our lives. We have so much to be grateful for, especially now at the end of Thanksgiving week. All the planning led to thoughts on “how did God plan our world?” He spoke things/life into being instantly. My human mind thinks—did He have to plan it all out in Heaven, from the tiniest atom and molecule to the most dense foundation upon which He would make this world? All that before coming here to earth and to create and do it all in just 6 days! Birthday plans begin to seem insignificant compared to planning for creation—yet for us the plans were not that easy!
One of the gifts was a basket! It is not a small basket—nearly the size of 2 basketballs together. It was filled with fruit but not one of the typical fruits you get this time of year. Not a single apple, orange, grapefruit, or pear. We do have those and appreciate them but this basket was filled with other kinds of fruit! Several kinds of mangos, the largest pineapple I have ever seen, two pomegranates, 2 kinds and several persimmons, dragon fruit, and dragon eyes, some tamarillos, cashews, a hairy spiky fruit called rambutan, mangosteens, and small hard apple like fruits called tejocote, a Mexican hawthorn. Many of these come from outside the USA. They were a new experience to our taste buds and how to eat them. I could not imagine that some even existed.
This led me to think about the Tree of Life in Heaven. I think that I have always assumed that the tree would have a different fruit on it for each month of the year. They would cycle through the various fruits like apples and oranges and bananas and kiwis and all the common fruits I can find in most grocery stores. Seeing that basket of fruit made me realize I need to expand my horizons. Our Bibles give us some clues. The Tree of Life is a symbol of eternal life, healing, and God’s presence. It was originally in the Garden of Eden but was removed from humanity’s reach after sin. The Bible, particularly the book of Revelation, promises that those who “overcome” will be granted access to eat from it in heaven. It is depicted as a majestic tree, located on both sides of the river of life in the new Jerusalem, bearing fruit year-round and providing healing leaves for all nations. The tree represents the restoration of eternal life that was lost when Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Its leaves are described as being “for the healing of the nations,” symbolizing the end of suffering and sickness in God’s kingdom. The tree is described as bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, providing continuous nourishment. I’m not even sure that the time called a month will even be important in heaven and nothing indicates that there will be a different fruit every month, just that it changes every month. Maybe several will be on the tree at the same time.
In the book of Revelation, the tree is described as being in the center of the New Jerusalem on a new earth, located on either side of the river of the water of life flowing from God’s throne. Thinking about this special tree with the variety of fruit that will grow on it made me wonder just how many kinds of fruit trees there are today. Of course I decided to use Google again! There are tens of thousands of tree species globally, though commercially, humans focus on a small fraction (around 200) of the edible fruits, with vast variety in apples (7,500+ varieties alone). That leaves room for many many kinds of fruit. meaning the number of distinct kinds or varieties easily exceeds many thousands.
It’s Hard to Pinpoint a number of trees with fruit! A botanist considers anything from a pea pod to a cherry as fruit, while we often mean sweet, fleshy items. There are vast numbers of varieties (cultivars) within a single species, like apples, making “kinds” subjective. Most plants produce fruit, but few are edible and palatable or grown for food. Nearly 300,000 plant species produce fruit. Humans consume about 200 types of fruits globally. Around 73,000 tree species exist, with many maybe yet undiscovered. In short, while thousands of tree species produce fruit, the number of distinct kinds (varieties) for human consumption is easily in the many thousands, if not tens of thousands, depending on how you count them. In the big picture, Garry had just a small number of unusual fruits to try. He discovered that he enjoyed most of the new kinds of fruits.
How wonderful is our Creator and Planner and CEO and make it all happen Person that we call God! I look forward to my first birthday in Heaven! My birthday party in Heaven will be fabulously perfect! And I won’t have to plan anything! It will planned by God!
Thank You God for being the ultimate birthday planner!