Last week I was feeling just a bit uncomfortable about turning 40. Not sad exactly...can't really put my finger on my exact feeling. I've had a good life and I don't want to pretend to be younger than I am or anything, but 40 was sounding older than I feel.
One evening, as I was thinking about it and also preparing to teach the Young Women on Sunday, I had a comforting thought. Being 40 means my life is approaching half over. I expect I will live between 80-90 years. (It's possible that it may be longer or shorter, of course, but I'd say between 80-90 is likely.) Which means I'm almost halfway home. Almost halfway back to my Father. That makes me feel a lot better about being 40. One college professor of mine liked to refer to this earthly life as a parentheses in eternity...although it feels much longer than that to us as we experience it. It's comforting to me to think that perhaps I am almost halfway through that parentheses. I am certain there are still many lessons for me to learn, many trials still to endure, much that will humble me and strengthen me and hopefully mold me into a better person. I hope there are still many opportunities for me to serve and hopefully bless others' lives as well as to be served and have others bless my life. It's a wonderful thing to be alive, but I think it will also be wonderful to return home. To be reunited with loved ones. To live eternally with those we love most. Being 40 isn't so bad after all.
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