old age

Old age isn't normally seen in our American culture as a blessing. Oh, we want all the years, we just don't want the sags and wrinkles and aches and pains that go with them. We have a multi-billion dollar industry of diet supplements and fitness programs and surgeries that panders to our desire to at least look younger than we actually are. 

I often tell of the time a friend asked, "Did you know growing that beard would make you look so old?" I asked, "How old do I look?" "Well, about 50 or so, I guess." I was 52 at the time, so I was OK with that. For this friend, though, a choice that made me actually look the age I am was incomprehensible.

I thought about that this morning while reading from Zechariah 8, especially verses 4 and 5, which read, "This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each of them with cane in hand because of their age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there.'"

It intrigues me that this vision of a heavenly future is described with these extremes of ages, old people and children. It's a reminder that in the world of Zechariah, and in many parts of the world today, getting to be an old man or woman wasn't all that likely. In times of hardship or conflict, it was the old who struggled to make it. Old people were among the first to die.

Old people with canes sitting at their doors watching children play was as good a description of peace and prosperity as there was at that time.

I like it that God uses ripe old age as a picture of his blessing. It validates something I've been thinking about off and on, that what comes with the years is a lot of context. Context is that general understanding of what life normally looks like; after five decades of watching winters and springs, for example, you develop a pretty good idea of what's normal weather and what isn't.

That context also develops for things like relationships, moral choices, financial questions, and cultural values. The word we use for it is wisdom, but I think even those we don't normally think of as wise are better able to navigate life when they're older because of they have more context.

I think that's becoming my superpower. Even as my run times get slower and push-ups get harder, and so does getting off the floor when I play with the grandkids, it seems like I understand more of what I see. I have a much strengthened ability to solve problems, I can more and more look at things through the other person's eyes. I feel like I understand people and can help them better. And I'm starting to make deeper spiritual connections as well.

So I love this image of heaven as the place where old people sit chatting in the streets. It's like this huge blanket of love and common sense that lies comfortingly on top of all the angst and drama that passionate younger people generate. God's kingdom is where all that context partners with the energy and enthusiasm of youth. 

So thank you, Lord, for your blessing of the senior citizens in our churches, families and neighborhoods. And thank you too for the superpower of understanding I gain with the years. It's more than a fair trade for a few aches and pains.