Borrowed Days

At the age of 52, my life seems to be passing before me too quickly. I wrote the following in my mind as I rested one evening. Sleep failed me as I pondered these things in my heart.
Many things my Savior had use of were borrowed. His tomb was borrowed where they lay him. The cross he bled and died on was borrowed. The stable and the manger he lay in for his bed were also borrowed. The donkey he sat upon was borrowed. He didn?t even have a pillow to lay his precious head. I began to ponder my own life. I too, can associate all that I have in life has been borrowed from the Lord.
I would like to give God the glory for any knowledge that he may let me borrow as I write my story of borrowed days.
The Lord knew me even before I was born in heaven. The womb that he knit me in was my mother. My mother was borrowed to give me birth, as Mary was borrowed for Jesus. My mother and father were borrowed to train me in the way of the Lord. I could not stay with my parents forever so I was to only borrow them and they me for the short time we had together on this earth. They borrowed me as an inheritance to the Lord. My childhood days were borrowed from the Lord as well as my now aging adult days. I lived in a borrowed earthly home, to eat, sleep, and dwell in. My bed was even borrowed to give me rest. My food that sustained me was from the Lord. The clothes that kept me from cold and for protection were borrowed. The heat from the trees and coalmines were borrowed to keep me warm. The rain, the snow, as well as the storms of life to refresh me and teach me longsuffering from the Lord.
Living water was provided by the Lord that I might never thirst again.
We might say, I have worked hard and bought all these things for myself as one in vanity would say. I tell you that all you have or ever will have is from the Lord. Our lives are only a vapor for our days are numbered, saith the Lord. I, as an adult have learned that all is only on loan or borrowed from the Lord as I live in the earthly vessel he has provided for me. My own body has been borrowed to house my soul in.
I am so glad that the Lord let me borrow the five children I have to raise and admonish in the Lord. The grandchildren also are borrowed vessels to fill for the Lord with his word to give them eternal life.
The earthly garden that I plant is only borrowed ground from the Lord to grow the borrowed fruits he grows for me. I even borrowed the rain to water them and the sunshine to make them grow. I also, have borrowed my husband from the Lord to provide for his family and to love his wife as the weaker vessel in the Lord. My friends are borrowed to weep with me when I weep and rejoice with me when I am happy and I gladly receive their borrowed prayers on my behalf. The Holy Spirit gives them the prayer to intercede for me. Thank you Holy Spirit for your borrowed words I can not even utter as you speak for me to my Father in high Heavenly places.
I think of all the spiritual things that are borrowed in my days upon this earth. I have borrowed spiritual wisdom in aging in the Lord as well as spiritual eyes and ears to see and hear the things of the Lord. I have borrowed the Holy Spirit to teach and guide me in all truth. I have the bible, the word, borrowed for a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
My salvation is borrowed from Jesus who made eternal life possible for me. My righteousness was borrowed only from him could I be pure and holy.
I have even gone so far to borrow the windows of heaven from the lord to receive his blessings that poured out on my borrowed life. The only way and no other way for me to enter heaven would be through a borrowed door. The door, Jesus himself, is the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus said, I am the DOOR.
I believed that Jesus? blood would cover my sins and wash me whiter than the snow that he loaned me on a cold winter day. Borrowing his blood, his ways, his word, knowledge and truth has set me free of the price or interest that may be required of me. The things of the Lord can not be bought. He paid in full all my debts before I was even born.
I have also borrowed His mind, for I now have the mind of Christ living in me. I have borrowed his peace, his love, and his yoke to make my load lighter.
In heaven I will be complete in him. All things will be made brand new and afresh in Him. For now all my treasures in him in this earthen vessel are as borrowed days. In heaven I will have the savior Himself, and no more borrowed days for the Savior paid for me in full.

Written by Karen Armstrong
October 7, 2001