Message Summary: Today we encourage you to consider the daily text. If you’re
a youth or young adult rejoice in and enjoy your season of strength.
But realize it will pass. Let us all, young and old, recognize the “splendor of the old”
and honor them, gaining wisdom from their life’s experience. If you are
old and gray realize that God has a planned purpose in your remaining
years on this earth as you share your splendor with those around you. Hopefully many will recognize and appreciate it.
“Stand up in the
presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God.
I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:32). “The glory of young men is their
strength, gray hair the splendor of the old” (Proverbs 20:29). “A gray
head is a crown of glory; It is found in the way of righteousness”
(Proverbs 16:31).
Yesterday our pastor, John Keefer, and his wife Faithe celebrated their 46th anniversary.
Their steadfastness in life, ministry and marriage is a blessing to
many. Brooksyne and I both appreciate their faithfulness to the Scriptures, to sound
doctrine and holding firm against the moral anarchy of our time.
Last week we mentioned attending a 50th anniversary party for Mervin
and Lois Buckwalter, friends from our church. At one point in our
younger years it seemed anyone celebrating 50 years in marriage
were just ancient and it probably still
seems that way to
our
younger readers. But after celebrating our 40th anniversary last month
“old” doesn’t seem so old anymore! According to the US Census Bureau only 6% of
marriages make it to fifty years.
I spoke to Mervin in church this last Lord’s Day and he shared an
interesting blessing he and his wife shared. Both his and Lois’s
parents celebrated their seventieth wedding
anniversary! Now that’s an accomplishment for anyone but to have both
sets of parents makes it is outstanding and surely very unusual. I did
a search to determine the odds of that happening but was unable to find
any info. However according to one source the percentage of any single
marriage lasting seventy years is only .06 percent so I suppose the
odds of both sets of parents in a marriage making it to 70 years is infinitesimally
small.
This
brings to mind Menno, a man who attended our church when we
first moved to Lancaster County, who lived to be 102. He
attended until he was no longer ambulatory, only months before
his homegoing, having lived in the same house all his 102 years. He was
a widower
at the time we met him and thus we never met his wife. He got around
well using a
cane. When greeting me he would look up (he stood maybe 5′ tall and I at 6’2″) and said,
“We’ve sure got a lot to be thankful for don’t we?” Now I’ve heard that
rhetorical question quite a lot through the years, but when Menno would
say it, it always made me pause and really consider the depth of such a
declaration.
Menno didn’t have much hair left on top but he had a prominent
gray/white beard bringing to mind the verse and title for today’s
message:
“The glory of young men is their strength, gray hair the splendor of the old” (Proverbs 20:29).
“The glory of young men is their strength.”The truth of this phrase is very evident. When you are young you may
take your strength for granted but now in our sixties we both sense a
diminishment of strength. I (Stephen) enjoy lawn work and DYI home
improvement projects. But after doing some work yesterday I can see
(and feel) that I don’t have the strength and
stamina I had in my twenties and thirties. The other day Nick, a friend
of Ester’s was over for a visit. When a frisbee got caught up in our
large
front lawn oak Nick darted across the yard and shinnied up the tree to
retrieve the frisbee. Usually Brooksyne and I take a long pole to
retrieve the “stuck” frisbees from the branches.
I recall the strength of my youth.
When I was Nick’s age I could jump over the width of a car. I did it often to impress Brooksyne before we married. Please don’t ask me to try that now! Iwas athletic and a pretty decent long-distance runner. For many years
we both played tennis together. Brooksyne was full of physical strength and energy. Being
raised on a farm she was accustomed to hard work as her family farmed, gardened, and preserved food for their “brood” of seven.
“Gray hair the splendor of the old.”
I
wonder how many of the elderly consider their gray or white hair a
source of “splendor”? How many of the rest in our culture do? (I
wonder how many millions of dollars are spent annually to cover
it?) The splendor should be a recognition of the
experience, perspective, and wisdom the aged have.
One of the great underlying causes of
social dysfunction in our land is the intergenerational breakdown and
the segregation of age groups. God has ordained the progression of
life from young to old and places His blessing in various ways upon each as the daily text testifies. And I
believe each are needed for a healthy society. What a blessing when the
older show love and interest in the younger and when the younger show
love and esteem to the elderly.
Today we encourage you to consider the daily text. If you’re
a youth or young adult rejoice in and enjoy your season of strength.
But realize it will pass. Let us all, young and old, recognize the “splendor of the old”
and honor them, gaining wisdom from their life’s experience. If you are
old and gray realize that God has a planned purpose in your remaining
years on this earth as you share your splendor with those around you. Hopefully many will recognize and appreciate it.
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
