麻豆约拍

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with writer and broadcaster Mark Dowd

Good Morning.

鈥淭he days of our years are three score and ten,鈥� Psalm 90 tells us. Well, average life expectancy for many of us now well exceeds seventy, but I still shudder every time I hear those words from the Old Testament. I see a suffering face. Her name was Caroline, a dear friend from my university days. She was merely thirty two years old and was two weeks away from death due to cancer in the spine. She was a fierce atheist and our friendship had been marked by passionate rows about the existence or not, of God.

On her death bed, she wasn鈥檛 giving up. 鈥淵our God has cheated me of fifty years of my life,鈥� she said.

Initially I fell silent and looked away in discomfort. Then after I had paused, I looked her in the eye. 鈥淣o, my God has given you thirty two years you might never have had,鈥� I replied. Another lengthy argument ensued. This was the last time I saw her and as we hugged, she said; 鈥滻鈥檒l never be a believer, not even now, but I鈥檓 glad you stood your ground,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat was important to me.鈥�

I can鈥檛 believe in a God who does averages. At a paltry five foot seven inches, can I reasonably accuse God because I fall two inches short of the mean of five foot nine? At the mint our humanly fashioned coins all come out the same, but DNA-based biology ensures that uniqueness and diversity are at the heart of the human story.

Creator God: help us cherish the gift of life with every beat of our hearts. No matter the length of our days, make us cleave to the truth that all life is grounded in your eternal hope and love.

Amen