Jonathan the tortoise, around 194 years old, named a Guinness World Records Icon
Jonathan, a giant tortoise living on the remote island of St Helena, has been named a Guinness World Records Icon as the world's oldest known living land animal at roughly 194 years old. Hatched around 1832, he has lived through nearly two centuries of human history, with generations of leaders, wars, and inventions coming and going. Reports of his death have surfaced before, but he is still quietly grazing on.
"Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."
Jonathan has watched nearly two centuries pass from a quiet hillside in the South Atlantic. Empires have risen and fallen, generations have come and gone, and still he grazes on. There is something humbling in it. Yet Scripture, in this psalm of Moses, does not ask God for a longer life, but for a wiser one. Even Jonathan's remarkable span is, as the same psalm says, like a day that has just gone by in the sight of God. The gift we are offered is not endless time, but the wisdom to spend well the time we are given.
Father, You hold all our days in Your hands. Teach us not to crave more time, but to use well the time You give. Number our days for us, and grow in us a heart of wisdom, that whatever years we have would count for You. Amen.