My Graying Crown

"Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life."  Proverbs 16:31

Oh, how I laughed the first time I read Proverbs 16:31!  All this month I have been reading one chapter from the book of Proverbs each day.  I read from the New Living Translation so that I may better understand, and thereby apply, each verse.  I don't know if this is okay to admit, but I've actually found many verses in Proverbs to be quite humorous...especially the verses about gray hair (the bible talks about gray hair?!?).

Even in my early 30's, I seem to be adorning a few, well...MANY gray hairs.  I like to think that I've earned them (I am NOT making claims of righteousness here; I am referring to all through which we've endured).  Just this morning as the girls were brushing their teeth, I found myself combing through my "crown" pulling as many little gray fellows as I could find.  I chucked to myself trying to remember the verse about gray hair being a crown.  The blessing is...I didn't have to think long.

After everyone's teeth were bright and shiny, I swung through our office to check e-mail (sometimes my seemingly only connection to the outside world) and took time to read my daily devotional from Proverbs 31 Ministries.  Would you believe that the verse for today was Proverbs 16:31?!?!?  (Check it out at http://proverbs31devotions.blogspot.com/.)

God knows me oh so well.  Psalm 139 reads, "O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.  You know when I sit down or stand up.  You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.  You see me when I travel and when I rest at home.  You know everything I do.  You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord....How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.  They cannot be numbered!  I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!"

God knew what I was thinking this morning.  He knew what the verse would be today in my devotional from Proverbs 31 Ministries.  God orchestrates events like these to reveal Himself to us.  I can hardly explain the humility I felt this morning as I read my devotional, knowing that was the verse I was searching for in my head just moments before.

Thank You, Father, for revealing Yourself to me.  Thank You for knowing me, deeply knowing me - and for loving me anyway!  Thank You for the gray in my crown; for adorning me with a crown...of splendor!