Philip Yancey tells of a painting in the Prado Museum in Spain by Hans Baldung titled "The Stages of Life with Death." On the ground is a newborn baby. The baby is surrounded by three elongated figures. In the left of the painting is a beautiful young woman--alabaster skin, hair flowing down her back, the perfect picture of classical beauty.

Next to her in the middle is an old hag, a shriveled old woman with a hard, angular, mean-looking face. With one arm she is reaching out and grabbing the shoulder of the beautiful young girl, and with a sneer she is pulling her toward herself. With her other arm she is interlocked with a third person, a creature--man or woman you cannot tell, for all features have been melted down into a rotting corpse--holding an hourglass. There it is--birth, youth, old age, lived in the presence of death.

We all live in the presence of death, but what things have we put off because we have forgotten the reality of death? So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom. Teach us to number our days, so that we will not fail the time in which we have been placed, so that we do not unwittingly aid the Enemy in the ruination of our souls.