In 1982, I was not looking to get married.  Instead, I was fifteen, unable to car-date yet (parent rule), and I was enjoying life as a teenager, playing ladies’ industrial softball, ceasing to play high school basketball, and now preparing to run track.
In 1982 or 1983 or even in 1984 (at graduation), I was not looking to settle down….to marry….and yet by then, I was hanging out with my best friend, a boy I met on my first day of school in KY, way back during 6th grade.
At seventeen, I was allowed to car-date, so he and I enjoyed attending basketball games, hanging out, going out to eat, and just being together.  
We were friends…..best friends.
Then in 1986, I married my best friend.
Yes.  I married the boy, the one I had known since sixth grade.  We were so young (19), maybe too young.  He asked, and I said, “Yes.”
Even then, in 1986, I was not looking toward a certain number of years together; I was not thinking of a Jubilee of years together. In fact, I did not even know that term….way back then.
Sixty years.
A Lifetime of years.
Time  Shared Together.
Marriage.
Walking alongside the same person for a lifetime.
TEN (years) +
TEN (years) +
TEN (years) +
TEN (years) +
TEN (years) +
TEN (more years).
60 Years.  A Jubilee. 

• Will that be enough (time)?
• Will that be time well spent?
• Will we be glad we shared a lifetime together–a lifetime from 1986 to 2046?
• A Jubilee of years….a marriage of years….a LIFETIME….TOGETHER.

I was born in 1966, and at the age of 15, I became a believer.
So, in 2041, in just 20 more years from now (when I reach the age 75)…..I will celebrate a Jubilee of years….TOGETHER WITH MY LORD.
A marriage…..Christ Jesus’ salvation given freely to me. This Jubilee will be a significant milestone I will reach BEFORE I reach my 60th wedding anniversary with my husband. 

God’s Word speaks to us about all parts of our lives.  God leads us to see His truth.
Jeremiah was a man, a prophet, one who knew God’s will for his life.
How did he know?  Easy.  He shared a lifetime…..walking with God.

“For thus says the LORD,  ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.
For I know the plans that I have for you,’  declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope”  (Jeremiah 29: 10-11).

A Jubilee (60)+10 more years…..In 70 years…A Promise from God.

Finished. Complete. But Not Just a Life Lived in Captivity.
But….A only a Visitation.
And….A good Word….Fulfilled…..A FUTURE & A HOPE.
A Promise of Restoration.
And….A Returning to their Home….to “this” place.
A Plan for their Life.
A Plan….For their Welfare.
And a Plan….Not for their Calamity & Not for their Demise.
But….A Plan……Their Future  &  Their Hope.
Today, let us see how God has our future (just as God had their future….Israel’s). 
God penned our story for us when we were still secure within our mother’s womb. Would it not be amazingly wonderful to allow our narrative to unfold as we chose to trust Him with our remaining days?!!!

Maybe (thus far) our life plans have not turned out just as we expected; maybe our lives have not gone just as we hoped; maybe our life-plan has suddenly shifted; maybe our life has been altered by our decisions and by our choices and by others we have met along the way.
The Israelites probably experienced exactly the same thoughts. 
During our day-to-day, we make so many decisions, & We alter our narratives (our life-story) as we live each one of our allotted days.

Yet, God created us, and even before He made one of our days, God made His plan for our lives.

And yet, when God created us, He made the way for us to know Him intimately, THE WAY TO WALK WITH HIM.
God gives us wings to live.   God allows us to choose, to decide…..the way we will go.
Maybe we will prosper…..Maybe we will fail.
Maybe we will marry young…..Maybe we will not choose to marry at all.
Most Definitely, we will alter our narrative as we make decisions, as we live as we want, as we choose our life-path.
As we will seek His will  & As we strive to worship Him……Then We Will LIVE.

God told Jeremiah to tell the Israelites that at the end of their time, they would return home.   Today, we each wish for that same goal…..to return home….to see God….when our life here is complete.

At the end of their seventy years of captivity, the Israelites wanted to be free, fully restored, and released to return home.

For me, way back in 1986, when we married, we stepped out, we went forward, we built a life together…..a new season in life….walking together….hand-in-hand, as husband and wife.

For me, way back at age 15, when I accepted Christ Jesus as my LORD, I stepped out, I went forward, I trusted God to build a life for me….Together….a new season in my life….walking together….as He leads me by His hand.

Maybe you are reading, and you are wondering: Why am I connecting these two stories together on this day?
It is because when I first met my husband, he was not a believer; he was not walking forward into his life with God.
BUT…..Then, in 1984, at the age of seventeen, he received Christ, and that Changed…..Everything!!!

• THEN, I could see our future…..Together….Equally yoked, walking together. 
• THEN, I could see the plan.
• THEN, I could see God’s hand upon our future days.
• THEN, I could see a Hope and not a calamity. 

One day (maybe soon, maybe not)……we will both go home to heaven.  We may both go, maybe even before we reach the Jubilee year of our marriage.
God knows the plans He has for us, for our lives.
Yet, until such day that God calls for me to come home, I have made plans, to daily walk with God……even as I walk with my husband….even as we are walking together into our future.
Let us discover God’s best for our lives.
Let us seek to know Him as our LORD.
Yes…..Let us today….choose to walk with God because it is a TRUTH……God chose to walk with us…..from our very beginning.

And who knows…….maybe, just maybe, we might live long enough to walk together with God….for a whole Jubilee (for a full 60 years)….AND….Maybe we might even be given 60+10 years (for a Jubilee of years + 10 More)….To Share…To walk with our LORD.

For whatever amount of time we have remaining,

• LET US CHOOSE WISELY &
• LET US CHOOSE WELL. &
• LET US CHOOSE TO WALK WITH GOD.

‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’  declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope”  (Jeremiah 29: 11).