Best By 11 18

Besides continuing my two-months-removed journal entries, I've decided that I will begin transcribing my "Book of Reflections" project from Valley Christian High School as well as all my Bible-classes' papers. I did some good writing there; I may as well share it with you, reader.

I took Christopher to the store yesterday, and I kept seeing "Best By 11 18" on all the fresh fruit packages and milk and breads and other things. Perhaps that is how God sees us, with expiration dates that He places on us, for our time is so brief in this life.


Birthdays have become strange days of deep reflection for me. I remember having parties as a child, and the guests were all my classmates from Covenant Christian Academy and their parents. But I suppose this was not unusual for the other CCA kids, as I attended just as many similar birthday parties. One thing is certainty: when I outgrew this school, I ceased to celebrate my birthday. Possibly this is because it was somewhere around this time that I gained a new identity in Christ, so that time is now simply another step towards an eternity of peace, one more bead of sweat toiling in the kingdom. For both of these I am grateful and I am dedicated to the truth that God will be glorified regardless of whether I breathe once more. Yet each breath is a grace. Birthdays have since lost their meaning to me, just as the rest of the holidays (even Christmas and Easter!), because my immediate family has ceased to celebrate these traditions, pagan or true. Even the Sabbath has not changed from its sinfully derelict weekly state in my family. Perhaps this is also consistent with my father's abandonment, which happened somewhere around this time. Yet these "Holy Days" do have significance because they are convenient tools to witness to the nations of the historicity of God's redemption and the commemoration thereof, especially the Christian Lord's Day, celebrating the work of Christ, especially His resurrection. (Did you know? God CHANGED the calendar [but then again, He created time!] for the Israelites to crown the Passover as the FIRST month, signifying the supremacy of God's redemption over the year. Similarly, Jesus rose on the first of the week, thus signifying the supremacy of Jesus's love over death and the re-ordering of the week.)

I'll be going to school on my birthday tomorrow. If you read this before then, reader, please do not wish me a happy birthday, but instead consider the Creator of time, the Master of our destinies, the Judge of Life and Death, the Conqueror of death, the Victor over sin, the Redeemer of souls. After all, what is a birthday? It's simply a day that I (like all other human beings) caused much grief to my mother. In fact, I was delivered Caesarean-style. Apparently I was a testy child, and I didn't allow my mother sleep before or after I was born, which makes me sorrowful, even if my tears were uncontrollable at the time. But I digress. A birthday is something silly to be celebrated. There is no effective difference between 18 years & 364 days and 19 years of age. There is no effective difference between 20 years & 364 days and 21 years of age, nor from 15 years & 364 days and 16 years. There may be certain milestones that are unlocked to be attained, according to the law of the land, such as the purchase and consumption of legal drugs and pornography, the ability to drive alone with a driver's license, the ability to serve one's country in the armed forces or in the poll booths, the forced responsibilities of maturity. Yet I argue that none of these singleton days constitute any substantial change, any noteworthy maturing, nor any change in conduct at all. These milestones and one's response to each reflects what one really feels towards that ability. You would only get drunk on your twenty-first birthday if you were already desiring the drug enough to overindulge. You would only join the army on your eighteenth if you were already interested in serving your country. You would only go buy the pornography legally if you already had a major problem with lust. And we are all born sinners, and the Bible says that sinners have earned hell. We are criminals and we trespass and endeavor diligently every day to spit in the face of the Judge.

Yet there is hope. Christians have faith in the power of God's love, the power that condescends to weakness in order to lift us to strength. God sent His Son to die for us, bearing our sin, our cross, our shame, that we may be resurrected with Him to life. This happens now. Don't wait, reader, until Your life is laid bare in judgment, for you cannot hire a lawyer while the court is in session, and you will NOT be able to answer the prosecutor (that is, the devil) when he accuses you of all your crimes, all your debt, all your guilt. Claim Christ, our innocent defending attorney who petitions to the Honorable Judge to bear our guilt, to pay all our outstanding debts, and to absolve us of our crimes by suffering the eternal punishment justly due. Justice will be served, and God will be glorified in His verdict.

Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour
all for love's sake becamest poor;
Thrones for a manger You didst surrender;
Sapphire-paved courts for stable floor. 
Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour
all for love's sake becamest poor.


Thou who wast God beyond all praising
all for love's sake becamest man;
Stooping so low, but sinners raising
Heavenwards by Thine eternal plan. 
Thou who wast God beyond all praising
all for love's sake becamest man. 


Thou who art Love beyond all telling:
Savior and King, we worship Thee. 
Emmanuel, within us dwelling, 
make us what thou wouldst have us be. 
Thou who art Love beyond all telling:
Savior and King, we worship Thee. 

--Joseph