#Aging

 

Wisdom is with aged, and understanding in length of days. Job 12:12

 

You have to have a sense of humor to be a Grandmother. Children speak whatever comes to mind.

Standing next to me asking me to read to her, my almost four year old Granddaughter made an observation. “Your neck has wrinkles.”

Within a week, I had made a snide comment about my gray hair being an indicator of wisdom (apparently not all the time) a young woman said, “Ahh, your crown of glory!”

Obviously, aging is evident to everyone – not just us as we look in the mirror.

As I read the Bible I can see that aging isn’t a bad thing to God. He has used a lot of “older” people to do work that brought Him glory and was good for the growth of His Kingdom and His people.

Think about Abraham and Sarah. Abraham was very old when God said that he would become a great and mighty nation and that all nations on the earth would be blessed by him (Genesis 17).

Though I would not want to be tested as Job was, he was seventy years old when God allowed Satan access to him and all that was his. After going through the trial God gave him another 140 years and replaced what had been taken.

The Bible says that Job was a blameless man. Job 29:12-18 tell us some of what Job was doing in his seventies.   “…because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him. The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know. I broke the fangs of the unrighteous and made him drop his prey from his teeth.”

It is encouraging that a man older than me was able to continue to work and serve the Lord and his neighbor.

It is also very challenging to those of us who are getting older. The world says, “Relax, let someone younger do it.” “Go, play golf and take more vacations.”

By all means, do that. But, let’s not stop doing good and encouraging others to do the same. With age comes wisdom – or at least experience. Let’s use it for the good of others and the growth of God’s Kingdom.

We may want to retire from our day jobs, but God gives us no examples in scripture of anyone who retired from serving Him because of age. The ministry may change because age does bring limitations; aches and pains, wrinkles and gray hair.

What we need to protect is our commitment and willingness to serve the Lord as He directs us…and our sense of humor to withstand the observations of others.