Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them”-before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain; when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men stoop, when the grinders cease because they are few, and those looking through the windows grow dim. Ecclesiastes 12:1-3
Dear heavenly Father, there’s a lot about getting older that simply isn’t a lot of fun—in the lives of those we love and in our own bodies. Stuff wears out, falls out, breaks, and changes shape and texture. The pleasures and pace of life change. Memory comes and goes and goes away a little farther. Personalities and attitudes show signs of decay as well.
Thank you for permission to call this process what it is—“days of trouble”. But thank you even more for the power of the gospel in the midst of all these changes. “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4:16) What great honesty… what a great hope. The promised never-will-wear-out body, Jesus has won for us, is sounding better and better. (2 Corinthians 5:1-5)
May it, be Father, let it be. As we get older in body, let us get younger and younger in the deepest and most intimate part of our being. When our legs can’t even waltz, may our spirits tap dance… even break dance. When our memory fades, let us rejoice in the fact that you will never forget us. When our eyesight gets dim, may the eyes of our heart see the beauty of Jesus with better than laser precision.
Father, before the days of our own age-engendered-limitations, we pray for grace and wisdom to love our aging parents and friends very well. For those of us who have parents who no longer recognize our faces or remember our names, give us thick skin and big hearts. For those of us for whom the joys and plans of life have been substantively altered by the need and expense of caring care for aging family members, keep us free from resentment and generous of heart. For the wife or husband whose spouse is aging at a quicker pace… keep them free from foolishness and sin, and renewed in their vow to love one spouse well, to your glory, the rest of their lives… period.
So very Amen, we pray, in Jesus’ merciful and matchless name.
