Fresh and Green

by Holly Moulder

The righteous will still bear fruit in old age,
they will stay fresh and green,
 proclaiming, “The Lord is upright;
he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

 –Psalm 92:14, 15

 

            Today is my husband’s 62^nd birthday.  A very big deal in our house because this day heralds the beginning of the golden age of Social Security!  We’ve looked forward to this period of our lives with great anticipation and have spent that first government check a thousand different ways.  My list includes new furniture, a trip to the beach, a new bedspread with matching curtains.  Don’s list is much less practical in my view (well, maybe the beach trip isn’t exactly practical), but it is HIS check after all, so he should have some say in deciding how that first one is spent.  He’s mumbled something about a new truck or a 1966 Ford Mustang, preferably in a shiny shade of Acapulco blue.  We’ll see, dear.

 

            According to the world, we are now officially old.  AARP has sent us an avalanche of letters and magazines.  Our junk mail advertises special prices on prescriptions and products for the elderly:  walkers, hip replacement surgeries, and discount dentures.  Local retirement homes are calling to check on us regularly, just to keep us informed of the spaces that may be coming available in the very near future.  (Just think about that one for a minute.  I mean, HOW do they know that ‘spaces may be coming available in the very near future’?  I find these calls particularly horrifying.)

 

Sage advice from John Wayne:  “Don’t let aging get you down.  It’s too hard to get back up.”

 

            Yes, the world would have us strapped in rocking chairs, wrapped in shawls, smiling toothless smiles and dreaming faded dreams of long-ago youth. 

 

But not God!  To Him, we’ve just begun! 

 

The psalmist shouts, “They (the righteous) will still bear fruit in old age!  They will stay fresh and green!”  Fresh and green?  Huh?  We don’t usually think of the well-over-fifty crowd as ‘fresh’, do we?  And ‘green’, in the context of society’s view of seniors, does not conjure up pleasant images.  But to God, we’re young whipper snappers! 

 

In the life of a Christian, there is no retirement on this earth.  There is no heavenly social security check in the mail, no eternal life old age home, no pension from paradise.  We’re still on the job and punching that time clock every morning. 

 

“A man is not old as long as he seeks something.”—Jean Rostand

 

So, we continue to seek His Kingdom, look for the lost, witness to those who need to know the Savior.  Every day that we’re still here provides us with another opportunity to serve, and we’d better not waste it!  Even in our knee-creaking, hip-popping, deaf-ear shouting, gray-headed old age, we are to proclaim:

 

The Lord is upright!  He is our Rock! Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness!

 

By the world’s standards, we’re all decaying little by little, minute by minute.  Those of us who have reached some of life’s significant milestones are viewed as not just old, but as climbing-up-over-the-hill-and-slip-sliding-down-the-other-side old.  Thankfully, that’s not how God views His children.  Instead, He sees our sin-ridden, decaying souls and loves us anyway.  And to prove it, He sent the sacrifice of the ages, Jesus Christ, to climb a very different hill.  The change-the-course-of-our-eternity hill.  He sent His only son, Jesus, to climb the hill of Calvary.  Just for us.

 

Even to your old age and gray hairs,

I am he, I am he who will sustain you. 

I have made you and I will carry you,

I will sustain you and I will rescue you.—Isaiah 46:4

 

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Father, thank you that, regardless of the number of birthdays, I’m still Your child. You don’t see my gray hair or my wrinkles.  In Your eyes, I am precious.  Keep my spirit fresh and green, ready and willing to serve You!