Can I Really Be 53?

Today is my birthday, and I turned 53 years old today. It is really hard for me to imagine. I was talking to my brother earlier and he was talking about the same thing, as he turned 69 two weeks ago.  Just doesn't seem possible. I was shaving this morning and as I looked in the mirror I was looking at the greying, thinning hair, the wrinkles around the eyes and I said to myself, (literally) "Dude, I remember the day you turned 13 like it was yesterday!" 
Then in my mind, I thought and I can recall specific details of each day... the day I turned 13 and that certain girl that I'd been crushing on kissed me in the hallway after school and melted my heart. At 23, on my birthday I was in prison in Vienna and I received a package from my sister Jo. When I opened it, there was several smaller packages, all wrapped in Christmas wrapping. The package had been lost in the mail for 2 months and happened to arrive on my birthday. We all laughed all day about that one.  On my 33rd birthday, my wife threw a birthday dinner for me at our house and some of the kids from our church in Bridgeport came over for the evening. My wife bought me a Pomeranian... our first one. The dog hated me and constantly bit Daniel and we had to get rid of it.
On my 43rd birthday, my church in Lincoln threw a birthday celebration at the church and had some of my family came in. They put on an entire show in my honor that day, complete with an Elvis impersonator. (Sure is hard to believe that was 10 years ago!) That brings me to today... 53 years in the blink of an eye.
Time goes by so swiftly.  It's like the Bible says in Job 7:6, "my days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle..."   Each day is just like that weaver's shuttle passing by on the loom... leaving threads behind each and every day, every year, weaving the tapestry of our lives.

While I may be a bit nostalgic today... I'm not sorrowful at all... I've lived a very blessed life. There have been plenty of bad times along the way, mixed in with the good... but they all work together weaving the fabric of my life... and as I look at my life, I love what I see. I'm so glad that the me of 23 and in prison has been transformed into the me of 53 years of age... and I can see God's goodness and grace in action.

Those of you who know me well know that I've said for the past 30 years that I'm going to live until I'm 103... so the way I figure it, I'm barely half way through this life... so there is much more to go in my tapestry!